LIVING    WORDS. 


(JLIYING     WORDS, 


E.  H.  CHAPIN,  D.D. 


WITH     AN      INTRODUCTORY     LETTER. 

BY 

BEV.    T.   8.   KINO. 


"Jewels  five  words  long. 
That  on  the  stretched  fore-finger  of  all  time 
Sparkle  forerer." 


BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED    BY  A.    TOMPKINS, 

33   &   40    COBNHII.X,. 

CROSBY,  NICHOLS,  LEE  &  CO.,  117  WASHINGTON  ST. 

1861. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1860,  by 

A.     TOMPKINS, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts 


Stereotyped  by 

Edward  P.  Foi  and  DUlfagham  4  Pinlert, 
41  Congress  St.,  Boston. 


INTRODUCTORY  LETTER. 


SAN  FBANCISCO,  Oct.,  1860. 
MY  DEAE  ME.  TOMPKINS  : 

I  have  just  received  your  note,  asking  me  to  furnish  a  short  preface 
to  the  volume  of  selections  from  the  writings  of  Dr.  Chapin,  which 
you  are  about  to  publish.  In  order  to  fulfil  your  request,  I  must  write 
a  few  lines  without  delay,  and  hurry  them  off  by  Pony  Express  to 
Boston  ;  so  that  if  these  words  reach  you,  and  are  accepted,  you  must 
give  thanks,  not  to  the  plodding  mail  stage,  nor  to  the  circuitous 
steamers,  but  to  the  flying  courier  who,  down  snowy  slopes  of  the 
Sierras,  across  desolate  plains,  at  the  risk  of  rifle-shot  or  deadly  arrow 
from  the  Indians,  and  over  passes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  takes  a 
direct  line  for  the  queen  city  of  the  Mississippi,  and  connects  us  by 
letter  with  the  coast  of  Massachusetts,  in  fourteen  days. 

A  great  distance  to  send  for  an  introductory  word  !  But  our 
affections,  thank  Heaven,  are  not  cooled  by  thousands  of  miles  of 
space.  You  could  easily  have  found  some  one  nearer  home  who  would 
have  written  a  more  fitting  preface  ;  but  you  could  not,  I  am  sure, 
find  one  who  would  prize  more  highly  the  privilege  of  connecting  his 
name  with  a  volume  destined  to  such  wide  service  ;  and  I  know  that 
it  would  be  difficult  for  you  to  find  one  who  would  write  with  heartier 
friendship  for  the  publisher,  or  with  more  cordial  admiration  for  the 
genius  of  Dr.  Chapin. 

1* 


C  INTRODUCTORY    LETTER. 

There  are  some  men  through  whom  the  Spirit  pours  "  a  sound  from 
heaven,  as  of  a  rushing  mighty  wind."  I  have  been  moved  by 
Dr.  Chapin,  in  recent  years,  as  many  thousands  have  been,  in  the 
midst  of  great  assemblies,. when  the  cloven  tongue  of  fire  sat  upon  aia 
soul,  and  the  divine  afflatus  moved  through  his  nature,  as  a  gust 
through  an  organ.  All  that  his  conscious  thought  did  was  to  touch 
the  keys.  The  volume,  and  swell,  and  sweep  of  the  music  were  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  flowing  now  in  a  wild  surge  through  his  passionate 
imagination,  and  waking  the  noblest  chords  of  the  religious  nature  in 
his  hearers  to  devout  joy,  —  now  in  a  simple  passage  of  melody  from 
his  heart,  plaintive  and  tender,  that  persuaded  tears  from  the  sternest 
eye.  He  has  seemed  to  me,  then,  to  be  not  a  single  nature,  but  the 
substance  of  a  hundred  souls  compacted  into  one,  to  be  used  as  an 
inspiring  instrument  in  the  service  of  the  loftiest  truth. 

And  yet  it  is  not  in  recognition  simply  of  his  eloquent  genius  that 
I  rejoice  here  to  associate  for  a  moment  my  name  with  these  thoughts 
of  his  ;  nor  is  it  to  confess  the  delight  of  his  friendship,  through  the 
years  of  my  ministry  ;  nor  to  pay  tribute  to  his  fidelity,  through 
various  lines  of  reading,  in  enriching  and  enlarging  his  powers  for 
the  service  of  Christ.  I  am  glad,  rather,  to  confess  indebtedness  to 
him  as  my  earlier  friend  ;  to  utter  feelings  warmer  than  admiration 
to  my  pastor  in  youth  ;  and  to  acknowledge  with  gratitude  that  I 
have  brought  something  substantial  from  him  with  me  to  this  distant 
field  ;  since  the  fervor,  the  splendor,  the  pathos,  and  the  spiritual 
simplicity  of  his  preaching,  twenty  years  ago,  are  not  memories 
merely,  but  influences,  —  permanent  lights  and  forces  of  the  inner 
life,  —  for  which,  granted  through,  him  by  Providence,  I  must  stand 
responsible. 

Each  new  volume  by  Dr.  Chapin  has  borne  testimony  to  advancing 
and  ripening  power.  This  one,  doubtless,  will  show  more  potently 
than  any  other  which  the  public  has  seen  the  breadth  and  vigor  of 
the  intellectual  gifts  which  he  has  so  faithfully  dedicated.  Books 


INTRODUCTORY    LETTER.  7 

of  this  character  are  peculiarly  adapted  to  our  American  hurry  and 
impatience  of  elaborate  and  artistic  address.  Very  often  the  best 
thing  in  a  sermon  or  speech  —  the  only  original  paragraph  or  pas- 
sage—  is  an  illustration  or  an  aphorism,  or  a  sudden  gleam  of 
imagination,  -which  condenses  the  meaning  of  the  discourse,  or  sets 
an  old  truth  at  an  angle  where  it  glows  like  a  gem.  Whoever 
masters  this  one  passage  holds  the  value  of  the  whole  effort.  The 
richest  minds  of  the  pulpit  are  those  which  sprinkle  their  pages  most 
freely  with  these  seed-thoughts,  or  from  whose  extempore  utterance 
can  be  caught  the  most  of  the  sentences  which  are  lenses  for  the  rays 
of  Christian  truth.  Diffuseness  is  especially  the  vice  of  pulpit-speech. 
The  formula  which  Carlyle  stated  as  to  books  is  peculiarly  true  of 
sermons:  "Given  a  cubic  inch  of  respectable  Castile  soap,  to  lather 
it  up  in  water,  so  as  to  fill  one  puncheon,  wine-measure."  Volumes 
like  Mr.  Beecher's  "Life  Thoughts"  save  for  us  the  solid  matter, 
and  give  us  what  is  vital  in  the  preacher,  disengaged  from  what  is 
mechanical.  There  are  comparatively  few  who  can  bear  this  test  of 
husking  off  the  accessories,  and  selecting  only  the  original  germ- 
passages  which  are  quickened  by  the  preacher's  own  insight  and 
experience.  The  poverty  of  many  a  fair-looking  discourse  is  patent 
when  this  process  is  tried  upon  it. 

The  volume  of  selections  from  Dr.  Chapin's  sermons  and  writings 
will  show,  I  am  sure,  that  his  mind  is  one  of  the  richest,  as  well  as 
that  his  heart  is  one  of  the  most  fervent  and  simplest  that  is  now  in 
communion,  as  a  preacher,  with  our  American  life.  He  is  a  thinker, 
as  well  as  a  prophet.  The  "  word  of  wisdom  "  is  granted  to  him  by 
the  same  Spirit  that  has  given  him  "faith  ;"  and  the  volujaae  will  be 
of  large  usefulness,  I  am  confident,  in  our  country.  It  will  be  wel- 
comed heartily  and  widely  in  this  new  State.  In  the  mining  regions, 
among  the  fort-hills  of  the  Sierras,  in  huts  amid  the  rocky  grandeurs 
of  the  Yo-Semite,  I  have  heard  men  speak  in  gratitude  of  sermons 
heard,  years  ago,  in  New  York,  from  Dr.  Chapin.  They  will  be  glad 


8  INTRODUCTORY    LETTER. 

to  be  able  to  get  so  close  to  his  mind  and  heart  as  the  book  for  which 
I  am  writing  these  lines  will  conduct  them  ;  and  it  will  help  them 
and  all  of  us  that  read  it  to  appreciate  the  simplicity  and  strength  of 
the  Christian  faith.  For  it  will  fulfil  the  purpose  which  Sir  Thomas 
Browne  desired,  when  he  said,  "Since  instructions  are  so  many,  we 
should  hold  close  unto  those  whereon  the  rest  depend ;  so  we  may 
have  all  in  a  few,  and  the  law  and  the  prophets  in  a  rule ;  the  Sacred 
Writ  in  stenography,  and  the  Scripture  in  a  nutshell." 

With  strong  desire  to  see  the  volume,  and  the  fervent  wish  that  it 
may  address  as  many  readers  as  its  merits  will  deserve,  —  a  wish 
which,  if  fulfilled,  would  satisfy  any  publisher,  —  I  remain 

Your  distant  friend, 

T.  S.   KING. 


PREFACE. 


WHILE  listening  to  the  thrilling  utterances,  or  pausing  over 
the  inspiring  pages  of  this  celebrated  divine,  the  compiler  of 
this  work  has  often  felt  that  a  collection  of  this  kind  would 
be  to  many  an  invaluable  treasure.  His  own  desire  for  it 
has  led  him  to  indulge  the  hope  that  many  of  Dr.  Chapin's 
numerous  friends  would  cordially  welcome  it,  and  that  it 
might  prove  a  means,  to  some  extent,  of  acquainting  others 
with  his  genius.  In  connection  with  his  brilliancy  of  intel- 
lect, poetic  fancy,  and  rare  eloquence  of  diction,  will  be  found 
evidence  of  a  catholic  and  genial  spirit,  —  a  large  and  loving 
heart,  —  which,  after  all,  is  the  best  title  to  our  admiration, 
— the  golden  key  to  our  best  sympathies  and  purest  emotions, 
and  the  surest  basis  of  a  noble  and  enduring  fame. 

These  selections  have  been  taken  from  Dr.  Chapin's  pub- 
lished works,  anniversary  and  other  speeches,  orations,  lectures, 
and  extemporaneous  sermons.  I  would  tender  acknowledg- 
ments to  the  Rev.  Henry  Lyon,  of  New  York,  for  the  use  he 


10  PREFACE. 

has  permitted  me  to  make  of  the  volumes  of  which  he  is  the 
publisher,  —  one  of  which,  "Select  Sermons,"  I  think  the 
ablest  of  Dr.  Chapin's  works,  and  perhaps,  upon  the  whole, 
the  noblest  contribution  to  this  kind  of  literature  that  has 
been  published  in  America. 

I  have  not,  in  every  instance,  selected  the  most  beautiful 
and  brilliant  passages;  but  what  I  thought  would  be  most 
likely  to  interest,  please,  and  profit  the  reader.  Deeply  con- 
scious of  my  liability  to  err  in  judgment,  I  yet  hope  that 
in  most  instances  my  choice  will  be  approved  by  those  best 
qualified  to  render  a  just  verdict.  I  cannot  more  appropri- 
ately bring  this  preface  to  a  close  than  by  saying,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  our  gifted  author,  "  May  God  pardon  the  evil  which 
has  mingled  with  my  labor,  and  may  he  bless  my  work." 

November,  1860. 


INDEX. 


"ABIDE  will  us,"  204-5. 

Ability  to  do,  how  acquired,  193. 

Abraham  (Isaac,  Jacob),  159,  336. 

Abstractions  move  the  world,  91. 

Action,  moral,  208  ;  and  inaction,  350. 

Adversity,  uses  of,  148-9. 

Affection,  office  of,  63 ;  power  of.  77  ; 
chemistry  of  right,  116  ;  in  all,  134  ; 
of  earth  in  heaven,  262  ;  deathless,  327. 

Affliction,  the  right  use  of,  185  ;  an  agent, 
not  an  end,  327. 

Africa,  bleeding,  268  ;  plains  of,  318. 

Age,  the  golden,  38  ;  of  lyrics,  221. 

Aged  Christian,  26  ;  and  young,  249. 

Ages,  striking  for  all,  28  ;  touching  all, 
29 ;  all  in  each,  182 ;  Christ  and  the, 
274. 

Alphabet,  the,  and  the  nebulse,  154. 

America,  the  work  of,  125  ;  our  duty,  126  ; 
Christ  speaks  to  people  of,  273  ;  young 
men  of,  352. 

Amusement,  70  ;  and  religion,  216. 

Angelo,  and  the  Christian  ideal,  174. 

Angels,  heralds  of  peace,  53  ;  fallen,  66  ; 
wings,  rush  of,  168  ;  and  men  —  land- 
ing-place of,  180  ;  we  may  become,  195  ; 
of  hope,  225  ;  privilege  of,  295. 

Annihilation,  sorrow  no  proof  of,  44, 121. 

Anthems  of  the  church,  old,  194. 

Aphelion,  we  can  never  touch  our,  173. 

Apocalypse  to  nature's  genesis,  169. 

Appetite,  how  subdued,  98  ;  unduly  ex- 
alted, 115  ;  fools  of,  252. 


Art,  Heathen  and  Christian,  174,  176 ; 
and  nature  — representing  spiritual  sub- 
stance, 191 ;  expression  of  power  in, 
321. 

Ascetic,  the,  and  the  sensualist,  98. 

Astronomy,  72  ;  and  power  of  mind,  158  ; 
Christianity  likened  to,  353. 

Atheism  not  natural  to  man,  341. 

Atmosphere  of  different  men,  183. 

Atoms,  rebellion  of  anarchy,  131 ;  none 
useless,  217  ;  or  insignificant,  350. 

Aurora,  power  shining  in,  154. 

Autumn  and  old  age,  76  ;  phase  of  nature, 
292  j  of  the  year,  of  life,  330. 

Baca,  valley  of,  how  lighted,  192. 
Bacon,  the  influence  of,  71,  332. 
Baptist,  the,  38  ;  -robe  of  immersion,  61. 
Barnacle,  living  like  a,  246. 
Barnacles  on  ship  or  sect,  220. 
Beatitudes,  the,  not  mottoes  for  war,  262. 
Beautiful,  the,  useful,  64 ;  the  ocean  is, 

93;  the  stars  are,  163;  truth,  where 

most,  218  ;  flowers,  340  ;  music,  354. 
Beauty,  our  sease  of,  86  ;  why  abundant, 

340  ;  like  a  flower,  351. 
Beggar,  greatness  of  the,  88  ;  akin  to  God, 

194,  234. 
Being,  a  miserable,  70  ;  and  doing,  102  ; 

end  of,  how  fulfilled,  172  ;  the  power  of, 

319  ;  illimitable,  333. 
Belief  in  God,  basis  of,  111. 
Beneficent,  order  is,  211 ;  the  inevitable 


12 


INDEX. 


is,  292,  295 ;  purpose  in  all  change, 
330. 

Bereavement,  meaning  of,  186. 

Bible,  how  to  judge  the,  33  ;  a  sufficiency 
in,  35;  and  ledger,  68;  and  science,  105  ; 
a  mirror,  chart,  etc.,  211 ;  read  back- 
ward, 218  ;  like  nature,  272  ;  how  to 
show  respect  for,  319  ;  the  greatest  of 
books,  352. 

Bigots,  knowing  it  and  sorry  for  it,  125. 

Bigotry  dwarfs  the  soul,  231. 

Bird,  comfort  for  the,  58  ;  ever  the  same, 
167  ;  an  illustration  of  Providence,  277; 
the  soul  like  a  wandering,  291. 

Birth-right,  the  divine,  34. 

Blessed  are  they  that  mourn,  why,  145. 

Blindness,  physical  and  moral,  37,  254. 

Book  of  character,  84  ;  of  Ecclesiastes,  190. 

Books  like  wondrous  mirrors,  329. 

Boston,  council  in  and  Hancock,  155. 

Boy,  a,  should  be  like  a  cat,  88. 

Brain,  the,  and  the  heart,  196. 

Bravery  and  cowardice,  124. 

Bread,  by  sweat  or  otherwise  ?  205. 

Brooklyn,  the  preacher  of,  312. 

Brotherhood,  the  doctrine  of,  105. 

Bruce,  the  heart  of  and  of  Christ,  99. 

Business,  the  helm  of,  30  ;  not  all-import- 
ant, 42  ;  intercourse,  condition  of,  50  ; 
conscience  and  Sunday,  68  ;  standards 
of,  103  ;  and  religion,  283. 

Butterfly,  the  simile  of,  258  ;  God  near  to 
the,  271. 

Byrotl  and  his  imitators,  49. 

Czesar  and  Christianity,  109,  290. 
Caesars  and  Napoleons,  fall  back,  138. 
Call,  every  man  has  a,  197,  217. 
Calvary,  going  with  Christ  to,  166. 
Calvinism,  objections  to,  345. 
Campaign  of  God,  conscripts  in,  252. 
Cancer,  compromising  with  a,  246. 
Capital,  life  true,  84  ;  nature  fixed,  man 

speculative,  199. 

Carolina,  breezes  from  Maine  to,  146. 
Catholic,  the,  51 ;   Roman,  complexity, 

247 ;  service,  318. 
Century,  the  man  of  the  19th,  87  ;  the 

sky  of  the  19th,  343. 
Chance,  made  a  servitor^  76  ;  or  debt  ?  78. 


I  Channing,  Plato,  etc.,  how  to  be,  259. 

Character,  the  book  of,  84  ;  weight  of,  94  ; 
test  of,  116 ;  the  true  basis  of,  177  ; 
greater  than  circumstances,  184. 

Charity,  where  shown,  169 ;  by  whom 
possessed,  286. 

Cheating  and  being  cheated,  313. 

Child,  in  the  grave,  81 ;  laid  to  rest,  113  ; 
death  of  a,  186  •,  mercy  to  the,  210 ; 
grief  of  the,  237  ;  mission  of  —  death 
of,  300  ;  the  weak  loved  most,  311 ;  face 
of  in  death,  353. 

Childhood  and  flowers,  342. 

Childlike,  the  Christian  spirit  is,  214. 

Child's  delight  and  grief,  237. 

Chivalry,  a  recognized,  230  ;  lack  of,  240  ; 
work  of  modern,  276. 

Christ,  the  confidence  of,  48  ;  the  influ- 
ence of,  49  ;  life  of — end  of  all,  88  ; 
the  cup  —  his  prayer,  96  ;  the  heart  of, 
99  ;  and  the  miracles,  103  ;  giving  life, 
108  ;  no  room  for,  110  ;  and  Socrates, 
122  ;  what  he  requires,  123  ;  rested 
upon  the  truths  of  nature,  133  ;  the 
grandeur  of,  138  ;  the  impulse  of  his 
life,  141  ;  our  example,  141 ;  his  per- 
sonal action  —  his  agency,  142  ;  what 
he  has  done,  143  ;  a  revelation  —  his 
power,  144  ;  and  Christianity,  145  ;  his 
birth,  146  ;  his  illustration  of  sorrow, 
150  ;  the  cross  and  crown  of,  162  ;  the 
essence  of  all  law,  164  ;  Son  of  God  — 
of  Man,  166  ;  his  work,  166  ;  alone 
fills  the  demand  for  truth,  170  ;  his 
mercy  —  man's  selfishness,  171  ;  his 
personality  demonstrated,  176  ;  love  of 
the  true  basis  of  character,  177  ;  not 
degraded  by  mockery,  184  ;  what  he 
saw  in  this  world,  190  ;  despised  not 
the  world,  192  ;  found  in  us,  193  ;  and 
the  Christ-like  soul,  199  ;  his  law  the 
basis  of  a  better  state,  200  ;  and  woman, 
201 ;  "  abide  with  us,"  204-6  ;  crowned 
with  thorns,  212  ;  what  his  cross  was, 
is,  213  ;  the  weeping,  214  ;  a  revelation 
of  the  Father,  214  ;  his  spirit  the  spring 
of  power,  217  ;  loving  him  in  the  true 
sense,  224  ;  need  of  communion  with, 
229  ;  and  geologist,  ethnologist,  232  ; 
searching  for  the  heart,  242 ;  the  source 


INDEX. 


13 


of  opinion  for  the  church,  247  ;  real 
homage  to,  248  ;  in  civilization,  249  ; 
walked  death's  bridge,  257  ;  likened  to 
s  spring  day,  268  ;  teachings  of  not 
gloomy,  269  ;  his  spirit  and  mission, 
270  ;  the  only  manifestation  of  Qod  the 
Father,  271 ;  riding  through  the  ages 
in  triumph,  274  ;  honored  by  a  loug 
retinue,  274  ;  in  the  Jerusalem  of  toil 
and  traffic,  275  ;  the  of  our  youth  on 
the  sea  of  death,  275  ;  sank  an  artesian 
well,  275  ;  his  words  surpass  all  others, 
276-7  ;  represented  in  the  pulpit,  278  ; 
as  a  vision  of  glory,  279  ;  and  the 
church,  284 ;  Polycarp's  testimony, 

289  ;  the  priests,  doctors,  and  Csesar, 

290  ;  his  spirit  —  the  future  state,  291 ; 
assurance  of  immortality,  294  ;  gather- 
ing in  one  all  things  in,  307  ;  example 
of  in  Qethsemane,  308  ;  none  can  dis- 
fellowship  from,  312  ;  died  for  us,  314 ; 
expressed  God's   love   for   the  sinful, 
315  ;   the  honors  due  to,  318  ;   turned 
out  of  doors,  322  ;  who  are  near  to, 
348 ;    close    to   humanity,  356 ;    how 
best  honored,  357  ;  his  cross  interprets 
nature,  359  ;  how  he  comes  again,  360. 

Christian,  an  aged,  26  ;  in  his  spirit  a 
spring-tide,  27  ;  union,  50  j  philan- 
thropy, the  tide  of,  51  ;  completion  of 
life  like  October  glory,  76  ;  condition 
of  being  a  —  life,  prize  of  the,  134  ; 
view  of  life,  168  ;  results  in  the  soul, 
172  ;  and  Heathen  art,  174,  176  ;  faith 
in  old  age,  204  ;  disposition,  the,  child- 
like, 214  ;  law,  effect  of  the,  266  ;  the, 
often  appears  anomalous,  2D7  ;  quali- 
ties of  a  true,  320  ;  stony  fruit,  348  ; 
literature,  the  worst  kind  of,  354. 

Christianity  the  world's  hope,  40  ;  the 
only  basis  of  a  rational  life,  47  ;  in 
every  denomination,  50  ;  is  a  life,  53  ; 
and  reformers,  54  ;  the  life  and  power 
of,  62  ;  fluent,  eternal,  92  ;  limitless, 
97  ;  its  nature  and  results,  102  ;  its 
influence,  105  ;  progressive,  106 ;  a 
farce,  107  ;  and  Ca;sar,  109  ;  cotton- 
bag,  123  ;  the  true  conserving  and  de- 
veloping powers,  127  ;  effects  of,  139  ; 
the  prime  object  of,  140  ;  its  influence 

2 


on  the  ages,  141 ;  illustrated  for  us, 
142-3  ;  a  system  of  life,  144  ;  without 
Christ,  145  ;  test  of  its  excellence,  149  ; 
how  revealed,  150  ;  how  it  regards  evil, 
153  ;  apocalypse  to  nature's  genesis, 
169  ;  the  change  produced  by,  170  ; 
Heathen  need  of,  174  ;  like  attraction, 
175  ;  a  witness  to,  176  ;  has  made  mar- 
tyrdom sublime,  192  ;  the  light  and 
life,  194  ;  the  oracles  of  and  of  free- 
dom, 227  ;  to  comfort  the  soul,  232  ;  a 
golden  ladder,  233  ;  Christ's,  235  ;  leads 
to  freedom,  245  •,  the  of  our  age,  287  ; 
how  it  meddles  with  institutions,  and 
dims  kings'  crowns,  290  ;  the  value  of 
historical,  294  ;  its  transmuting  power, 
297  ;  interprets^spiritual,  299  ;  its 
glory,  310  ;  a  revelation  —  not  a  revo- 
lution, 315  ;  its  platform  and  prospects, 
341 ;  stony  fruit  imitations  of,  348  ;  is 
a  spirit,  349  ;  the  true  idea  of,  353  ; 
like  astronomy,  353  ;  its  comprehen- 
siveness, 356  ;  planks  not  in  its  plat- 
form, 358  ;  and  nature,  359. 

Christmas,  what  right  to  celebrate  ?  117  ; 
Hymn,  118  ;  Sabbath,  146. 

Church,  the  and  ministers,  66  ;  "  the 
seed  of  the,"  71  ;  for  the  soul,  88  ;  its 
bells  chime-bells,  146  ;  the  true,  a  vital 
heart,  203  ;  standard,  the  true,  284. 

Citizenship,  the  rights  of,  165. 

City  and  country,  67,  287. 

Civilization,  the  agents  of,  157  ;  our,  due 
to  Christ,  249  ;  follows  labor,  285  ;  a 
better  from  decay,  331. 

Clergyman,  and  Christ,  respect  for,  322. 

Coals  on  an  enemy's  head,  205. 

College,  the  question  concerning,  85. 

Cologne-water  to  quench  Vesuvius,  88. 

Columbus  finds  a  world,  26  ;  of  the  skies, 
a,  87  ;  enterprise  of,  226  ;  possible,  165. 

Come  in,  who,  and  when,  43. 

Comet,  the,  made  an  index,  158. 

Communion  of  the  Eternal,  203  ;  hours 
of,  221 ;  with  God,  238  ;  the  mount  of, 
288. 

Complexion,  unsubstantial,  252. 

Condition,  improvement  of,  60 ;  how 
tested,  126  ;  changes  of,  crises,  267. 

Conqueror,  the  and  the  laborer,  137. 


14 


INDEX. 


Conscience  and  business,  6S  ;  thunder  of, 
107 ;  clipping,  119 ;  and  the  Presi- 
dency, 122  ;  dead  as  a  atone,  161 ;  re- 
gard to,  306. 

Conscripts  in  God's  campaign,  252. 

Conservative,  the,  and  truth,  65,  91, 173. 

Constitution,  danger  to  the,  126 ;  a,  not 
freedom,  131. 

Contentment,  blessings  of,  118. 

Convictions,  loyalty  to  a  duty,  61 ;  test 
of  genuine,  55. 

Copernicus  without  a  telescope,  120. 

Courage,,  when  greatest,  61 ;  danger  with 
—  Socrates  — Christ,  122. 

Court  dress,  1'ranklin's,  230. 

Cowardice,  vs.  bravery,  124  ;  no  yirtue, 
253.  » 

Creed,  the,  of  the  true  saint,  85. 

Crises  of  existence,  the,  257. 

Criticism  of  Christianity,  142. 

Cross,  the  love  of  the,  72  ;  an  instrument 
of  victory,  115  ;  the  central  light,  162  ; 
no  light  shall  eclipse  the,  166  ;  the  love 
shown  on  the,  133  ;  its  significance  and 
influence,  213  ;  the  Southern,  268  ;  the 
interprets  nature,  359. 

Crown,  who  wins  the,  50  ;  the  brightest  in 
heaven,  180  ;  of  thorns,  212. 

Crowns,  kings'  dimmed  in  Christ's  light, 
290  ;  come,  if  God  gives  them,  291. 

Crystal  Palace,  nature's,  191. 

Day,  a,  what  it  is,  25 ;  evening  of  the, 
334  -,  the  close  of,  335. 

Deafness,  what  it  is,  254. 

Death,  physical  and  spiritual,  37  ;  a  re- 
vealer,  56  ;  appeals  to  charity,  60  ;  the 
condition  of  a  higher  life,  73  ;  sense  of 
life  in,  151 ;  of  a  community,  152 ;  a 
transition,  164 ;  between  mother  and 
child,  186;  that  shakes  us  so,  204; 
what  it  is,  254  ;  a  physical  change,  257; 
Christ  with  us  in,  275 ;  baptism  into 
life  through  the  shadow  of,  296  ;  a 
sleep,  297-8  ;  of  a  child,  300 ;  a  trans- 
itional process,  330  ;  the  shadow  of  fast 
coming,  338. 

Debt,  not  chance,  78. 

Decalogue,  how  to  measure  the,  218 ; 
written  on  a  dime,  329. 


Declaration  of  Independence,  129,  180, 

229,  290. 

Degeneracy  the  oldest  of  cries,  339. 
Delaware,  Penn's  treaty  and  the,  265. 
Delirium  tremens  of  patriotism,  126. 
Delusion,  the,  of  all  ages,  151. 
Democracy,  the  Idea  at  the  core  of,  227. 
Depravity,  how  seen,  30 ;  the  best  type 

of,  248  ;  why  lament  ?  307  ;  the  worst 

manifestation  of,  350. 
Desecration  of  God's  image,  328. 
Design,  proof  of,  159  ;  a  beneficent,  292 ; 

indications  of,  325. 
Despair,  84  ;  when  not  to,  226. 
Despotism,  the  elements  of,  106. 
Destiny,   wisdom  weaves    the    cycle  of, 

,304 ;  nature  suggests  a  higher,  325. 
Devil,  how  the  comes,  81 ;  nature,  87  ;  his 

allies,  87  ;  the  sin  of  the,  312. 
Diamond,  one  flash  reveals  the,  32. 
Die,  we  must  alone,  40. 
Difficult  things  useful,  98  ;  providential, 

189. 

Dignity  not  compromised,  352. 
Disappointment,  uses  of,  148-9  ;  drives  us 

to  God  ;  172  ;  and  achievement,  303. 
Discipline  of  life,  the,  121 ;  meaning  of, 

147  ;  spiritual,  solemn,  155. 
Discovery  and  the  chain  of  order,  80. 
Disposition,  blessings  of  a  contented,  116  ; 

to  do,  more  than  power,  327. 
Distinctions,  what  they  prove,  319. 
Doing  and  being,  102  ;  as  we  like,  256. 
Dollar,  a,  and  the  disc  of  eternity,  45. 
Doubt  and  faith,  65,  84. 
Douglass  and  the  heart  of  Bruce,  99. 
Drunkard,  the,  boasting  of  freedom,  36. 
Duty,  the  voice  of  disregarded,  29  ;  the 

most  important,  51 ;  the  most  solemn, 

155  ;  every,  great,  161,  164  ;  the  spirit 

of,  172 ;  the  true  sphere  of,  200 ;  th» 

post  of,  201,  205. 

Earth,  its  tombs,  67 ;  a  cradle,  97  ;  a 
minim,  174 ;  one  family,  234 ;  affec- 
tions of  in  heaven,  262  ;  holds  a  record 
of  beneficent  law,  292  ;  its  generations 
like  harvests,  330. 

Ease,  the  man  of  not  so  easy,  284. 

Easter  morning,  the  bells  of,  110. 


INDEX. 


Ecclesiastes,  the  Book  of,  190. 

Economy  of  life  —  of  living,  74. 

Eden  and  the  golden  age,  38  ;  condition 
of  rest  in,  269  ;  the  innocence  of,  308. 

Education  leads  to  larger  life,  332. 

Eggs,  hearers  likened  to,  358. 

Elijah  clothed  with  celestial  radiance, 
159. 

Eloquence  a  kindling  process,  302. 

Empires  like  forests,  330. 

End,  nothing  in  itself  an,  302. 

Endurance  and  achievement,  187  ;  the 
power  of,  321,  322  ;  the  soul  possessed 
with  like  the  moon,  324. 

England,  the  Bank  of,  67  ;  an  influence, 
71 ;  the  American  idea  in,  227. 

English  tongue,  the,  129  ;  tistory,  296. 

Environments,  nothing,  44. 

Error,  nothing  so  fluent  as,  91. 

Esau,  the  hands  of,  312. 

Essence,  a  whiskered,  57. 

Eternal  shore,  the,  6V ;  the  sublimest 
creation  of  the,  166;  and  temporal, 
350. 

Eternity,  a  wave  from  the  sea  of,  40  ;  disc 
of  hid  by  a  dollar,  45  ;  the  ages  of  and 
the  morning  stars;  15S  ;  a  ceaseless 
growth,  195  ;  a  symbol  of,  335. 

Ethnology,  72,  232,  344. 

Europe,  the  balance  of,  85  ;  sown  with 
gunpowder,  87  ;  mind  gone  out  in, 
296. 

Evangelists,  the  leaves  of  the,  100. 

Evening  of  the  day,  the,  334;  of  life, 
338. 

Events,  the  current  of,  47  ;  are  governed, 
60  ;  the  shells  of  ideas,  123. 

Evil,  a  shadow.  90  ;  to  overcome,  96  ;  how 
seen  aright,  112 ;  the  Christian  must 
conquer,  134  ;  a  reality,  153 ;  origin  and 
use  of,  168  ;  no  unmitigated,  188  ;  not 
permanent,  198  ;  degrees  of,  258  ;  God 
against  all,  268  ;  love  around  all,  304  ; 
speaking,  effects  of,  355 ;  not  final, 
358. 

Evils,  their  limits  —  point  of  cure,  62. 

Exchange,  nature  a  system  of,  70. 

Existence,  wisely  considered,  77  ;  we  can- 
not doubt,  a  spiritual,  123. 

Expediency,  210  ;  danger  of,  221. 


Eye,  the  insect's,  83  ;  thej  and  the  soul, 
101, 187  ;  useless  in  darkness,  159. 

Faculty,  the  inward  reliable,  79. 

Failure,  not  always  evidence  of  sin,  43 ; 
success  grows  out  of,  303. 

Faith  looking  up,  30  ;  and  logic,  43  ;  and 
action,  46  ;  the  telegraph  of,  50  ;  in  de- 
feat, 52  ;  of  development,  98  ;  demand 
for,  154  ;  and  mystery,  156  ;  and  per- 
ception, 168  ;  changes  the  cloud,  183  ; 
intelligent  —  cheerful,  198  ;  the  glass  of, 
231 ;  the  privilege  of,  295  ;  suggested 
by  nature,  325  ;  everything  rests  upon, 
326. 

Faithfulness,  test  of,  99. 

Falsehood,  clattering  locomotive,  a,  177. 

Fame,  the  penalty  of,  96. 

Family,  the,  a  ship,  56 ;  value  of  the, 
59. 

Fanatic,  the,  and  the  disputant,  32. 

Fanaticism,  religious  and  worldly,  246 ; 
proves  religion  real,  308. 

Fanueil  Hall  —  Plymouth  Rock,  94. 

Fashion  the  science  of  appearances,  167. 

Fatalism  not  resignation,  197. 

Father,  the  love  of  the,  113  ;  a  permanent 
relation,  165  ;  all  can  say  "  Our,"  234, 
235  ;  One  God  the,  345. 

Fatherhood  of  God,  the,  235,  271. 

Feeling  and  intellect,  196;  and  thought 
in  religion,  222. 

Fellowship  asked  of  no  one,  312. 

Flowers  always  appropriate,  342. 

Fools  of  appetite,  252. 

Formality,  danger  of,  219. 

Fortune,  the  loss  of,  104. 

Franklin's  patent  of  nobility,  230. 

Freedom,  the  charter  of  personal,  34; 
true,  36  ;  God's  work,  93  ;  and  slavery, 
131 ;  effects  of  real,  173  ;  limits  of,  306. 

Free-will,  the  glory  and  danger  of,  256. 

French  Revolution,  the  old,  120. 

Fruit,  stony  Christians,  348. 

Future,  the,  and  present,  170  ;  and 
young  men,  249 ;  state,  the  glory  of, 
291. 

Gamester,  a,  42  ;  pictures  of  his  life,  255. 
Gamesters  are  we  all,  196. 


16 


INDEX. 


Gayety,  a  reckless  ripple,  288. 

Genesis,  and  pre  Adamite  ages,  105  ;  the 
Apocalypse  to  nature's,  169. 

Genius,  the  inspirations  of,  49  ;  sympa- 
thetic, 55  ;  the  wealth  of  humanity,  94  ; 
its  need,  99 ;  its  reward,  120 ;  its  do- 
minion, 164  ;  a  setting  for  the  diamond 
of,  278. 

Gentleman,  a  true  not  vicious,  42. 

Geology  and  Christianity,  72,  232. 

Germany,  Hartz  Mountains,  235. 

Gethsemane  and  the  golden  age,  38 ; 
hours,  94  -,  Christ  in,  -122,  269,  308. 

Ghosts  versus  facts,  350. 

God,  his  word,  25 ;  his  reserve,  28 ;  the 
charter  of  freedom  from,  34;  man's 
nature  proof  of  a,  35  ;  song  to,  38  ;  im- 
mensities of,  42  ;  similitude  to,  46  ; 
glory  to,  63  ;  in  nature,  73  ;  of  nature, 
of  life,  77  ;  holds  the  balance  of  justice, 
85  ;  majesty  of  displayed,  86  ;  transla- 
tion of,  89  •,  paternity  of,  90, 233  ;  draws 
us  through  space  —  his  love  efficient, 
91 ;  expressed  in  nature,  92  ;  percep- 
tion of,  93  ;  sympathy  of— what  he  is, 
100  ;  idea  of  universal,  101 ;  worship 
due  to,  109  ;  the  father  —  infinity,  con- 
desjjension  of,  112 ;  answer  to  prayer 
from,  114 ;  voted  out  of  the  universe, 
120  ;  infinity  of,  121 ;  how  known,  124, 
134,  136,  172  ;  love,  of,  125 ;  holds  the 
world,  130  ;  plenty  shuts  in  from,  133  ; 
the  thought  of —  cload,  fire,  138  ;  spirit- 
ually seen,  139-40 ;  sorrow  leads  to, 
147 ;  as  a  stranger,  151 ;  presence  of 
unfelt,  152  ;  in  the  soul,  153  ;  immortal- 
ity, etc.,  156  ;  of  the  living,  159  ;  nature 
of  unchanging,  163  ;  the  desire  of  all 
ages,  165  ;  illustrated  in  creation,  183  ; 
nature  generalized  in,  190 ;  has  no 
patience  with  laziness,  193  ;  every  man 
a  call  from,  197  ;  unction  from,  198  ; 
made  the  sea,  stars,  199 ;  goodness  of 
seen  in  nature,  211 ;  love  of  manifest  — 
word  and  works,  212  ;  revealed  as  the 
Father,  214 ;  opened  a  new  world,  226  ; 
the  image  and  superscription  of,  227  ; 
communion  with,  232 ;  complimenting, 
233;  and  the  old  sinner,  233;  Our 
Father,  234-5 ;  men  project  a,  235 > 


proof  of  a,  230  ;  a  symbol  of  his  mercy, 
236  ;  glorified  in  all  things,  especially 
in  man,  243  ;  supreme,  246  ;  is  love, 
251 ;  the  campaign  of,  252  ;  the  privi- 
lege he  gives,  256 ;  surrender  of  the 
will  to,  256 ;  a  child  of,  257  ;  against 
evil,  268  ;  in  nature  and  in  Christ,  271 : 
seeing  with  the  vision  of,  280  ;  work  of 
—  need  of  faith,  281 ;  labor  the  chosen 
sphere  of,  286 ;  proof  of  his  existence 
and  unity,  301 ;  life  his  plan,  302,  304, 
306  ;  at  the  helm  of  the  universe  —  our 
reliance,  307  ;  given  love  —  help,  308  ; 
condescension  of,  310 ;  love,  mercy  of, 
311 ;  so  loved  the  world,  314-15  ;  power 
of  his  love,  321 ;  careless  of  offending, 
322;  his  tingdom  sure,  326;  what 
leads  to,  327 ;  image  of  desecrated, 
328  ;  autumn  of  year  and  of  life  from, 
330  ;  seen  in  nature  —  near  to  man, 
334-5 ;  has  a  purpose  in  creation  of 
beauty,  340;  feeling  after,  341;  two 
gifts  of,  342 ;  looking  to,  343 ;  the 
Father  of  all  humanity,  345 ;  has  made 
no  mistake,  350 ;  the  explanation  of 
things,  355  ;  never  alters  his  methods, 
360. 

God's  truth,  35  ;  work,  38,  93,  97  ;  solici- 
tude, 57  ;  care  for  little  things,  58  ;  love 
and  Providence,  91 ;  plan,  95 ;  sove- 
reignty—will, praying — doing,  108; 
love,  comfort  of,  113  ;  harmony  through 
works,  117  ;  attributes  our  safety,  133  ; 
glory,  lamps  of,  164  ;  throne,  all  things 
stream  from,  71 ;  light  in  Baca,  192  ; 
truth,  right,  207  ;  sympathy  revealed 
in  Christ,  248,  315 ;  temple,  truly, 
276 ;  love  for  the  child,  2S2 ;  mercy 
and  gladness,  284 ;  processes,  302, 
333  ;  love  mated  with  knowledge,  346 , 
eye  upon  you  —  law,  signal-flag  of, 
347. 

Gold,  the  fine  fine  forever,  182. 

Good,  the  shine  in  trial,  184 ;  all  things 
prophecy,  188  ;  comes  out  of  evil,  358. 

Goodness,  what  it  is,  102 ;  the  rule  in 
nature,  198  ;  and  knowledge  insepara- 
ble, 349. 

Gospel,  the,  and  woman,  33  ;  breadth  of 
the,  83 ;  requirements  of,  92 ;  the  uni- 


INDEX. 


17 


Verse  and  the,  166 ;  satisfactory  on  the 
moral  side,  16D  ;  proof  of  its  authentic- 
ity, 201 ;  a  peculiarity  of,  214  ;  a  beau- 
tiful truth,  218  ;  of  a  new  order,  229  ; 
the  central  doctrine  of  the,  235 ;  and 
war,  262  ;  the  essence  of  the,  264,  270, 
310  ;  the  power  and  verification  of  the, 
324. 

Grave,  rest  of  the,  81 ;  the  curb-stones  of, 
90  ;  the  secret  of,  98, 

Greenness  tw.  rottenness,  73. 

Grog-shops,  how  fed,  341. 

Growth,  laws  of,  70  ;  means  of,  86. 

Guilt,  retributions  of,  161 ;  degrees  of, 
258. 

Gunpowder,  Christ's  truth  is,  290 ;  Eu- 
rope sown  over  with,  87. 

Habit,  principle  — the  difference,  177. 

Habits  likened  to  a  go-cart,  254. 

Hancock,  26  ;  and  the  council,  155. 

Harmony  in  God's  works,  117  ;  the  key- 
note of  universal,  234. 

Hartz  Mountains,  shadow  in,  235. 

Harvest  blasted  reminds  of  God,  133. 

Head  and  heart,  150. 

Heart,  proof  of  divine  tenderness,  36 ; 
and  intellect,  48  5  solitary,  100 ;  no 
one  -lued  to  its  socket,  134  ;  the  lever 
of  the  soul,  140 ;  and  head,  150  ;  the 
helm,  153 ;  the  pure  reflects  God,  172  ; 
and  brain,  19S  ;  disease,  nations  stricken 
with,  228  ;  lives  by  love,  232  ;  like  a  sea- 
shell,  235  ;  Christ  claims  the,  242  ;  a 
new  —  as  a  chalice,  245;  the  world's, 
how  moved,  322 ;  a  strong  never  over- 
come, 323. 

Heathen  and  Christian  art,  174,  176.        « 

Heathenism,  sighs  from,  143. 

Heaven,  hindrances  to,  26  ;  who  counts 
there,  67  ;  grave  idea  of,  115 ;  what  it 
is,  134  ;  no  night  in,  159  ;  seen  through 
tears,  185 ;  nearness  to,  200 ;  cannot 
leap  into,  246 ;  cannot  be  where  Bin  is, 
253 ;  affections  not  changed  in,  262  ; 
tiled  with  bliss,  267. 

Heroes,  the  noblest  of,  61 ;  true,  137  ;  our 
Revolutionary,  227. 

Herschell,  a  Columbus,  etc.,  87. 

History,  the  flowering  of  all,  26  ;  Christi- 

2* 


anity  and,  141  •,  the  providential  ends 

of,  292  ;  English,  296  ;  opens  the  gates 

of  the  past,  332. 

Homage  due  to  Christ,  the,  274. 
Home,   pre-vision  of  the  world  in,  28  5 

influence  of,  29 ;  made  an  inn,  135  > 

consecrated  —  or    desecrated,   341 ;    a 

seminary,  343. 
Honor,  stars  of  the  legion  of,  173  ;  the 

post  of,  205  ;  due  to  Christ,  275,  318.  - 
Hope,  reason  to,  48  5  born  in  sorrow,  52 ; 

its  effects,  67  ;    nothing  to  hang  on, 

234  ;  who  has  it,  286. 
Hopes,  baffled  aid  the  soul,  291. 
Humanity,  how  known,  54 ;  how  it  grows, 

70  ;  one,  72, 101 ;  not  lost,  83  ;  moving, 

92  ;  something  needed  by,  143  ;  not  an 

earthly  flower,  186;  greater  than  any 

place,  250  ;  or  laws  or  institutions,  262 ; 

all  in  each,  314. 
Human  nature,  not  all  odious,  55  ;  every 

body  full  of,  261 5  powers,  highest,  322. 
Humility,  195  ;  what  it  is,  314. 
Hymn,  118,  215,  306. 
Hypocrite,  the  fatality  in  the  case  of,  83  5 

who  is  a,  312. 

Idea,  the  force  of  an,  160  ;  the  American, 
227-8  ;  of  typical  forms,  301. 

Ideas,  the  expression  of  divine,  33  ;  wear 
crowns,  91 ;  worth  of,  102 ;  events 
shells  of,  123  5  potency  of,  237  ;  before 
action  —  the  world  and,  244. 

Idealist,  the  work  of — honor  to  the, 
244. 

Idiot,  the  voluntary,  37. 

Immortality,  proof  of,  71,  72,  101,  156, 
238,  240  5  consciousness  of,  236 ;  evi- 
dence of,  239  ;  assurance  of,  289,  294, 
327  ;  inward  blossoming  of,  342. 

Incongruity,  no  hopeless,  188. 

Independence.    (See  Declaration). 

Indians,  treaty  with  the,  265. 

Individual  and  the  State,  172 ;  and  the 
race,  moving,  190 ;  responsibility,  219  ; 
influence,  224  ;  worth  and  right,  228  ; 
and  social  —  all  are,  229  ;  conscience, 
claims  of  the,  261. 

Individualism  and  nationality,  228. 

Individuality,  not  enough  of,  130. 


18 


INDEX. 


Induction,  the  ladder  of,  32 ;  the  claim 
of,  190 ;  what  it  is,  299. 

Inevitable,  the,  beneficent,  292,  295. 

Infidel,  the  came,  348. 

Insane,  reasoning  of  the,  260. 

Integrity,  only  the  path  of  safe,  355. 

Intemperance,  how  induced,  182 ;  effects 
of,  256  ;  issues  of,  341. 

Intemperate,  selling  to  the,  329. 

Intellect,  religion  transmutes  the,  27 ; 
justifies  faith,  39  ;  and  heart,  43,  190  ; 
and  the  moral  nature,  79  ;  the,  cavils, 
169 ;  alone,  icy,  like  lofty  mountains, 
220  ;  lives  by  truth,  232;  is  a  light  — 
neutral,  238  ;  achievements  of,  244  ; 
early  found  proofs  of  immortality,  258. 

Intellectual  ability,  admirable,  61 ;  cul- 
ture, conditions,  use  of,  249-50 ;  pro- 
gress, 343. 

Interest,  twelve  per  cent,  68 ;  obscnres 
the  sight,  251. 

Irreligion,  unnatural,  219. 

Island,  stealing  an,  217,  260. 

Jacob,  the  voice  of,  312. 

Jerusalem,  150, 166,  247,  274,  275. 

Jesus,  the  crucified,  51 ;  valued  the  wid- 
ow's mites,  55  ;  his  words,  89  ;  no  room 
for,  110  ;  the  thorn-crowned,  176,  212, 
321 ;  contrasted  with  professors,  218  ; 
the  example  of,  263 ;  transfigured, 
279;  value  of,  294;  when  he  weeps, 
297. 

Joy  of  life,  the,  not  In  licence,  41 ;  the 
normal  state,  42  ;  translation  of,  89 ;  the 
flowering  of  existence,  96 ;  of  the  blessed 
spirit,  351. 

Judas,  Jonathan  changed  to,  229;  the 
betrayal,  244,  317. 

Just,  never  degraded,  194. 

Justice,  call  of  disregarded,  29;  never 
dies,  35  ;  the  balance  of,  85 ;  and  mercy 
harmonize,  210 ;  nkture  of  true,  262 ; 
balked,  280,  336 ;  the  Bible  in  courts 
of,  319. 

Kindness,  the  fruit  of,  116, 132. 

Kingdom,  of  heavep,  there  is  a,  34  ;  and 
the  mustard-seed,  277  ;  of  God,  the  be- 
ginning of,  107  ;  sure  to  come,  326 ;  bow 


advanced,  356 ;  its  foundation  in  Hie 
soul,  358. 

Kings,  cont:nental,  87  ;  the  Book  of,  113  ; 
crowns  and  Christianity,  290. 

Kingliest  Being  ever  born,  the,  44. 

Knave,  the  and  saint,  reasoning  of,  260. 

Knowing  and  thinking  one  knows,  147. 

Knowledge  and  piety,  45  ;  and  progress, 
119;  tendency  of  the  highest,  192; 
source  of  the  best,  199  ;  useless,  230  ; 
defies  gravitation,  243  ;  use  of,  250 ; 
mated  with  God's  love  —  shine  every- 
where, 346  ;  tends  to  goodness,  349  ; 
and  to  life,  356. 

Labor,  its  conqnests  and  glory,  178-9; 
developed  energy  of  sou),  191  j  our  post 
in  the  field  of,  269  ;  the  triumphs  of, 
285  ;  God's  chosen  sphere,  286. 

Land,  love  of  native,  31 ;  a  happy,  69. 

Law,  the  physical,  God's,  59  j  inconsist- 
ency of,  69  ;  moral,  and  twelve  per  cent, 
68  ;  of  love,  277  ;  beneficent,  292  ;  very 
bleak,  306  ;  shad-net  of,  336. 

Laws,  purpose  and  use  of,  262 ;  of  God 
must  be  obeyed,  360. 

Laziness,  God  no  patience  with,  193. 

Leaf,  the,  and  Sirius,  174,  350  ;  the  foil 
of — the  vanishing  of  epochs,  292. 

Learning  that  is  not  genuine,  230. 

Leaves,  none  useless,  217. 

Legion  of  honor,  the  stars  of,  173. 

Lexington,  227  ;  the  martyrs  of,  22S. 

Liberty,  35  ;  Democratic,  106 ;  an  old 
fact,  173 ;  the  charter  of,  where,  2SO  ; 
its  limits,  306. 

Lie,  a,  but  a  lie,  31 ;  small  and  large,  32  } 
a  spark  of  fire,  132;  black,  153. 

Life,  a  crucible,  20 ;  the  sum  of  at- 
tainments, 28  ;  a  problem,  40  ;  enjoy- 
ing, 41 ;  computed  by  the  dross,  56 ; 
of  pleasure,  a,  66 ;  economy  of,  74 ; 
greatness  of,  108 ;  spiritual,  116 ;  a 
discipline,  121 ;  on  what  its  joy  de- 
pends, 132,  133  ;  meaning  of,  147  ;  who 
fitted  for,  147  ;  sense  of  death  in,  151 ; 
there  is  a  future,  167  ;  Christian  view 
of,  168  ;  religious  view  of,  171 ;  depends 
upon  character,  181 ;  conditions  of,  how 
determined,  187  ;  the  true  cud  of,  193, 


INDEX. 


19 


222 ;  Underlying  power  of,  198 ;  the 
deepest,  199  ;  and  death,  conditions  of, 
218  ;  the  inner  supreme,  222  -,  another, 
239  ;  fulness  of,  241 ;  standards  of,  250  ; 
degrees  of,  259 ;  of  heaven,  261 ;  sug- 
gestive of  good,  270 ;  no  condition  of 
satisfactory,  277  ;  this  not  all,  291 ;  how 
baptized  into,  296 ;  God's  plan,  302  ; 
the  object  of,  325 ;  an  immeasurable, 
328  ;  autumn-season  of,  330  ;  of  educa- 
tion, 332;  shadow  —  evening  of — ac- 
count of,  334-5  ;  the  spiritual,  338  ;  be- 
calmed on  the  sea  of,  337  ;  what  we 
make  it,  352 ;  the  great  revealing  of, 
353  ;  knowledge  and,  356. 

Light,  infinite,  90 ;  for  the  eye,  159  ;  the 
intellect  a,  238  ;  the  inner,  206. 

Locke,  the  influence  of,  71,  332. 

Logic  and  scolding,  40  ;  and  faith,  111. 

London,  130 ;  journal,  a  century  ago, 
339. 

Louis  and  Massilon,  283. 

Love  burning  forever,  30 ;  a  mother's,  55, 
270  ;  the  spring  of  effort,  63  ;  life  of  the 
best  things,  67  ;  of  Qod,  72 ;  creative, 
74  ;  secures  its  ends,  83  ;  God's  efficient, 
91  ;  divine,  94  ;  of  the  Father,  113  ;  a 
permanent  force,  115  ;  the  key  of  knowl- 
edge, 124 ;  divine,  how  shown,  188  ; 
suffering,  triumphant,  212 ;  the  uni- 
verse steeped  in,  214 ;  a  test,  217  ; 
thread  of  quivering  down,  231 ;  the 
synonyme  of  righteousness,  251 ;  an  in- 
stance of  brotherly,  290 ;  a  minister  of 
infinite,  272  ;  around  all  forms  of  eril, 
304  ;  God-given,  308  ;  exhaustless  — 
the  essence  of,  310,  311 ;  in  large  na- 
tures, 313  ;  God  is  —  the  primary  fact, 
314,  315  ;  of  God  like  light  of  morning, 
316  ;  the  central  truth,  317  ;  the  essence 
of  God,  321 ;  how  the  largest  acts,  331 ; 
God's,  346. 

Loyalty  to  best  convictions  a  duty,  51. 

Luther,  26  ;  possible  Lnthers,  165. 

Maine,  breezes  of  to  Carolina,  146. 
Majority,  result  of  going  with,  355. 
Wan,  the  true,  how  shown,  32  ;  the  divine 

birthright  of,  34 ;  a  proof  of  a  God,  35  ; 

not  the  head  of  all  things,  42  ;  a  com- 


plete instrument  —  no  one  hopeless,  48  ; 
the  best  and  bravest,  52  ;  like  a  tele- 
scope, 56  ;  a  solitary,  58 ;  the  vain,  a 
sham,  58  ;  to  be  a  true,  61 ;  physically 
—  spiritually,  63 ;  each  in  an  original 
position,  68  ;  what  made  to  be,  87  ;  of 
the  19th  century,  87  ;  a  true,  116  ;  and 
other  creatures,  167  ;  a  seeker,  170  ;  of 
principle,  181 ;  the  glory  of,  189  ;  tran- 
scends nature,  191 ;  needs  a  Redeemer, 
191 ;  diversity  of  his  nature,  193  ;  true 
end  of,  193;  kindred  to  God,  194; 
every,  has  a  call  from  God,  197  ;  an 
unlimited  possibility,  199,  202;  alone 
guilty,  etc.,  202  ;  afraid  of  himself,  202  ; 
the  most  miserable,  205 ;  likened  to  a 
tree  in  a  storm,  207  ;  the  unmerciful  — 
suspicious  —  mean,  209;  none  super 
fluous,  217 ;  the  worth  of,  227 ;  tho 
State  exists  for,  228  ;  belongs  to  God, 
228  ;  of  two-fold  nature,  229  ;  who  is  a 
man,  230  ;  concentric,  236  ;  God  glori- 
fied in,  243 ;  a  sponge  with  brains, 
243 ;  as  an  instrument  of  ambition, 
250 ;  likened  to  an  insect,  251 ;  a  cari- 
cature of  a,  256  ;  the  greatest  experi- 
ence of,  257  ;  the  insane  reasons,  260  ; 
like  a  star,  261 ;  of  ease  not  easy,  284  ; 
experience  of  confirms  religion,  309  ; 
the  true  hopeful,  313  ;  the  sinful  still  a, 
313  ;  a  charge  to  keep,  318  ;  proof  of  a 
true,  319;  of  ability  doing  nothing, 
S22 ;  who  does  not  live,  329  ;  from 
youth  to  age,  331 ;  more  than  a  chat- 
tel, 357. 

Manhood,  grand  feature  of,  62 ;  the 
strength  of,  321. 

Mankind  is  one,  101. 

Manliness,  true,  61,  262. 

Marriage  a  bond  of  service,  301 ;  the 
true  idea  of,  337. 

Martyr,  the,  201 ;  the  modern,  209 ;  of 
Lexington,  228  ;  his  persecutors,  241. 

Martyrdom,  peace  by  the  shrines  of,  53  ; 
made  sublime,  192 ;  true  spirit  of,  203. 

Mary,  the  character  of,  34. 

Massilon  and  Louis,  283. 

Materialism,  argument  against,  196. 

Mayflower,  Christianity  in  the,  290. 

Macaulay,  death  of,  296. 


20 


INDEX. 


Meditation,  fruits  of,  208  ;  need  of,  283, 
337  ;  fit  seasons  for,  338. 

Men,  metalic  and  hollow,  46  ;  defects  of 
great,  49  ;  the  best,  76  ;  constitute  eras, 
160  ;  moving  zones,  183  ;  the  noblest 
the  dcvoutest,  194 ;  likened  to  trees, 
207  ;  to  pack-horses,  253 ;  differences 
of,  259 ;  few,  261 ;  like  a  sponge  or 
weed,  286 ;  all  in  each,  314 ;  and  the 
Bible,  319. 

Mercy,  Christ's  spirit  of,  171 ;  likened  to 
the  moon,  198  ;  and  justice  harmonize, 
210 ;  symbol  of  God's,  236 ;  makes 
gladness  in  heaven,  284 ;  the  essence 
of  the  gospel,  310  5  how  it  regards  the 
sinful,  311. 

Methodist,  the,  38  ;  singing  hymns,  61. 

Methuselah,  a  condensed,  87. 

Milton,  49,  71,  254,  332. 

Mind,  decisions  of  concerning  itself,  79 ; 
the  great,  120 ;  is  deathless,  158  ;  a 
clearer  reality  than  matter,  189  ;  po- 
tency of,  237 ;  suggests  immortality, 
238  ;  superior  to  matter,  233  $  what  its 
capacities  signify,  296. 

Minister,  how  he  should  preach,  66, 165, 
198.  272,  278,  283. 

Miracle,  evidence  of,  43  ;  possible,  155, 
210. 

Miracles,  Christ  proof  of  the,  103, 

Mirror,  the  pure  heart  a,  172  ;  the  Bible 
a,  211  j  a  breath  upon  the,  365. 

Mites,  the  widow's  rung  in  heaven,  56. 

Moon,  the,  and  mercy,  108 ;  patience, 
324. 

Morality  and  religion,  89. 

Moral  nature  as  utithentic  as  intellect, 
107  ;  sense  and  manliness,  262. 

Mother,  bereaved,  186  ;  old,  204 ;  a  sym- 
bol, 236  -,  influence  of,  242. 

Mother's  love,  55;  270,  311 ;  prayer,  199. 

Mount  Sinai,  of  Olives,  259,  274-5  ;  Ser- 
mon on,  268,  277  ;  of  Transfiguration, 
281 ;  of  communion,  238. 

Mourn,  blessed  they  that,  145. 

Music  in  heaven,  38  ;  and  the  soul,  163  ; 
on  violin,  211;  God's  gift  —  divine, 
342  ;  nature  and  effects  of,  354. 

Mystery  and  faith,  156 ;  we  are  drifting 
into,  257  ;  dark,  349. 


Napoleons,  Caesars,  fall  back,  138. 

Nations,  have  an  orbit,  83  ;  for  what  they 
exist,  125. 

Neture,  God  working,  73  ;  things  excel 
in,  77 ;  its  rebuke  and  blessing,  92,  93, 
122  5  symbolic,  99  ;  parables  of,  125  ; 
meaning  and  uses  of,  161 ;  its  apoca- 
lypse, 169  ;  the  methods  of,  174  ;  and 
religion,  189  ;  how  to  study,  190  ;  her 
crystal  palace,  191 5  fixed  capital,  199  ; 
the  student  of,  what  like,  200 ;  hiding 
human  horrors,  264 ;  and  the  Bible 
alike,  272  ;  autumn-phase  of,  292  ;  what 
the  light  of  shows,  293  j  highest  mood 
of,  320-21 ;  suggestions  of,  325  ;  and 
Christianity  —  how  interpreted,  359. 

Nebulae,  the  philosopher's  alphabet,  164. 

New  Testament,  the,  free  from  fanaticism, 
45 ;  like  the  stars,  89  ;  the  wonder  of, 
145  ;  the  sceptic  and,  224  ;  how  to  read 
the,  248  ;  what  it  makes  clear,  262  ;  its 
own  best  commentary,  273  5  sense  of 
faith,  326  ;  on  a  dime,  329. 

Newton,  49,  87,  232,  259,  299. 

New  York,  88,  130. 

Niagara,  waters  of,  60  ;  the  falls  of,  106  j 
mists  of  and  of  superstition,  308. 

Night  in  heaven,  no,  159  ;  purpose  and 
blessing  of,  223  ;  smitten  by  morning, 
268  ;  shadows  of  and  of  life,  335. 

Nobility,  the  true  affirmed,  230. 

Ocean,  the  beautiful,  93. 

October  glory,  76  ;  like  pomp  of  empires, 

330. 

Office  spoils  men,  229. 
Old  age  in  sin,  63  ;  and  autumn,  75  ;  and 

death,  293  )  an  evening,  338  ;  and  flow 

ers,  342. 

Oldest  time  the  best,  241. 
Old  Nick,  175 ;  father,  mother,  204. 
Olives,  the  Mount  of,  269,  275. 
Opinion  and  sin,  176 }  the  source  of  for 

the  church,  247. 
Opportunities,  present,  64  ;  of  temptation, 

181. 
Order,  the  chain  of,  80  ;  everywhere,  189  ; 

is  beneficent,  211. 
Ostentation  and  hypocrisy,  312. 
}  Over-ruler,  the,  is  merciful,  308. 


INDEX. 


21 


Pain,  hope  and  mercy  in,  78. 

Palestine  always  a  Holy  Land,  93. 

Palm  Sunday,  274,  318- 

Parables  of  nature  and  society,  125. 

Passion  stains  through,  28  ;  how  over- 
come, 316. 

Past,  the,  use  of  its  elements,  54. 

Patience,  117  ;  born  of  suffering,  169 ; 
God  none  with  laziness,  193  ;  a  great 
thing,  333. 

Patriotism,  dead,  52  ;  indignant,  126. 

Peace  and  power,  38  ;  to  men,  53  ;  Penn's 
conquest  of —  the  glory  of  God's  nature, 
267. 

Perception  and  faith,  168. 

Perfect,  cannot  be,  that  the  glory,  195. 

Perfume,  an  organized,  57. 

Peter,  214,  279,  282,  317 ;  on  the  ware, 
343. 

Philanthropist,  the  hope  of,  57  ;  the  life 
of,  241. 

Philosophy  and  religion,  45,  47 ;  of 
prayer,  45 ;  of  utility,  74 ;  rebuked, 
340. 

Pic-nic,  the  best,  175. 

Pillar  Saints,  the  sect  of,  246. 

Plan,  man  caught  into  God's,  197  ;  in  na- 
ture and  life,  301 ;  life  not  our,  but 
God'a,  302  ;  tribulation  a  part  of, 
304. 

Plants  of  righteousness,  208. 

Platform,  the  best,  200 ;  Baltimore,  not 
Sinai,  259  ;  of  Christianity,  341. 

Plato  and  others,  128, 139,  251,  259. 

Pleasure,  the  end  of  a  life  of,  66. 

Pleads,  Orion,  57,  259.     • 

Plenty  shuts  us  in  from  God,  133. 

Plymouth  Rock,  94,  227. 

Poet,  the  themes  of  ever  fresh,  101 ;  the 
true  —  his  work,  175, 177, 213  ;  his  mis- 
sion, 220-21. 

Poetry,  what  it  is,  177,  219,  221. 

Politician,  true  register  of,  84  ;  a  thimble- 
rigger,  229  ;  an  unprincipled,  248. 

Politicians  like  owls,  30  ;  slimy,  250. 

Politics,  cotton-bag,  123  ;  separated  from 
religion,  229. 

Polycarp,  his  martyrdom,  289. 

'Poverty  and  riches,  180 ;  of  soul,  333. 

Power,  the  highest,  26,  38  ;   moral,  251 ; 


where  is,  288  ;  the  ultimate,  319  ;  true, 
320. 

Prayer,  objections  to,  27  ;  camp-fires  of, 
31 ;  philosophy  of,  45 ;  without  love, 
67  ;  reason  for,  82,  109  ;  direct  answer 
to,  114 ;  natural,  135  ;  a  mother's,  199, 
242  ;  well-springs  of,  283  ;  the  dew  of, 
322. 

Prayers,  how  brought  to  one's,  172. 

Preaching,  66  ;  we  need,  165  ;  its  power 
and  effects,  198,  272,  273,  278,  283  ;  to 
whom,  358. 

Present  and  future  —  and  past,  170. 

Presbyterian,  the,  38,  51,  247,  310,  355. 

Prescott,  the  history  and  heart  of,  323. 

President's  chair  and  conscience,  122. 

Pride,  the  sin  of  the  devil,  312. 

Principle,  a  good  never  dies,  48  ;  rever- 
ence for,  50  ;  and  habit  —  the  differ- 
ence, 177  ;  the  man  of,  181 ;  vs.  passion, 
209  ;  the  worth  of,  355. 

Principles  coined  by  us,  78  ;  conquer,  91. 

Printing  press,  the,  73, 157. 

Profanity,  brutal,  105  ;  awful,  111. 

Profit,  real,  46,  84. 

Progress,  the  law  of,  36  ;  foot-prints  of, 
76,  83  ;  of  man,  106  ;  barriers  to,  116  ; 
evidence  of,  119  ;  of  the  individual  and 
the  race,  190  ;  hieroglyphics  of,  191. 

Prophecy  of  a  higher  state,  102  ;  witness 
to,  130. 

Providence,  an  omnipotent,  39 ;  bow  in 
the  cloud,  60  ;  like  a  clear  night  sky, 
80  ;  beam  of  God's,  91 ;  works  with  us, 
not  for  us,  197  ;  tempts  Columbus,  226  ; 
order  of  beneficent,  292. 

Providential,  difficult  things,  189 ;  ends 
of  history,  292. 

Psalms,  the,  live  forever,  113,  353. 

Pulpit,  the,  its  power,  278  ;  place,  287. 

Purpose,  a  beneficent,  330  ;  the  Creator's, 
340. 

Railroad  company,  when  to  stop,  177. 

Raphael's  master-piece,  279. 

Reason,  prophetical,  167. 

Reasoning,  the  fault  of,  260. 

Redeemer,  man  needs  a,  191 ;  the  Trans- 
figuration, 279 ;  Raphael's  picture, 
279  ;  walking  by  us,  302. 


22 


INDEX. 


Reform  legitimate,  39  ;  and  Christianity, 
40,  54  ;  and  the  conservative,  173. 

Religion,  the  effect  of  true,  27  ;  and  all 
good,  37  ;  justified,  39  ;  like  gravity, 
41 ;  and  philosophy,  45,  47  ;  favors  ful- 
ness of  nature,  61 ;  the  work  of,  83 ; 
not  arbitrary,  101 ;  the  effects  of,  103  ; 
the  glory  of,  133 ;  its  elements  in  all, 
135  j  not  exclusive,  136;  the  life  of, 
138  ;  test  of,  149  ;  its  nature  and  joy, 
152 ;  spontaneous,  157  ;  the  most  sub- 
stantial of  all  things,  162 ;  what  it  is, 
174  ;  comes  out  of  nature,  189  ;  why  BO 
little  with  us,  196 ;  woman's  need  of, 
201 ;  where  it  dwells,  216 ;  and  amuse- 
ment, 216 ;  its  expression  symbolic, 
219  ;  a  revival  of,  222  ;  like  light  wood, 
226  ;  and  politics,  229  ;  a  vital  interest, 
245  ;  and  business,  283  ;  its  work,  283  ; 
and  superstition,  308  ;  can  never  be  up- 
set, 309  ;  a  false  respect  for,  322  ;  its 
power  and  use,  349. 

Religiousness,  a  crude,  115. 

Resignation,  197  ;  not  resistance,  206-7. 

Rest,  ground  of,  78 ;  never  to,  173. 

Restlessness  a  prophecy,  39,  284. 

Resurrection,  110,  259. 

Retribution,  what  it  is,  78, 151. 

Revelation  and  science,  45 ;  from  God, 
165  ;  not  to  be  damaged,  237  ;  how  au- 
thenticated, 309. 

Revolution,  progress,  83 ;  fathers  of  our, 
230. 

Right,  absolute,  34 ;  fails  not,  82,  247 ; 
with  men  and  angels,  ISO ;  holding  to 
half  way,  216. 

Righteous,  the,  turn  ignominy  to  glory, 
184  ;  life  of  beautiful,  218. 

Righteousness,  plants  of,  208  ;  for  its  own 
sake,  221. 

Sabbath,  necessity  for  a,  345. 

Sages,  ancient  on  immortality,  258. 

Saint,  creed  of  true,  85;  and  scholar, 
111 ;  a  sour  old,  240 ;  Pillar  Saints, 
246 ;  and  sinner,  254 ;  the  great,  288  ; 
death  of  the,  353. 

Salvation,  the  chariot-wheels  of,  356. 

Satan,  casting  out  by,  207. 

Saviour,  trial  of  Uie,  184. 


Scholar  and  saint,  111 ;  privilege  of  the, 

231 ;  the  true,  249. 
Science,  the  issues  of,  117  ;  leads  up  to 

God,  154  ;  agrees  with  religion,  337. 
Scripture,  how  understood,  32  ;  the  letter  • 

of,  113. 
Sea  of  silence,  a,  38  ;  the,  an  organ,  199 ; 

shell,  the  heart  like  a,  235. 
Secret  of  the  stars,  the  grave,  98. 
Self-conceit,  danger  of,  44,  116. 
Self-esteem,  how  limited,  303. 
Selfishness,   to  unlearn,  41 ;   man's  vs. 

Christ's  mercy,  171.  • 

Self-respect,  an  honest,  314. 
Sensitiveness,  what  it  indicates,  333. 
Sensualist,  the  worst,  65  ;  an  ascetic,  98. 
Shakspeare,  71,  259,  332. 
Sheep,  the,  how  led,  304. 
Silence  around  the  throne,  38. 
Silver,  thirty  pieces  of,  29,  244. 
Sin,  its  effects,  37  ;   the  gates  of,  how 

shattered,  43  ;  is  voluntary,  107  ;  evils 

of,  121,  142 ;  the  retributions  of,  151 ; 

a  cheat,  151 ;  the  death,  152 ;  a  reality, 

153  ;   of  unused  power,  202 ;   is  hell, 

253. 

Sinai,  30  ;  the  platform  of,  259. 
Sinner,  an  old,  63 ;    old  and  God,  233 ; 

and  saint,  240,  2o4  ;  love  for  the,  270. 
Sirius  and  the  leaf,  174. 
Sceptic,  condition  of  the,  46  ;  would  love 

Christ  if  he  knew  him,  224. 
Scepticism  founds  no  empires,  30  ;   re 

futed,  39;   rebuked,  189;  the  worst, 

231 ;  the  tradition  of,  2J6  ;  rests  on  no 

basis  at  all,  239. 
Slavery  and  freedom,  131,  253. 
Slaves  to  fashion,   130 ;   to  possessions, 

253. 
Sleep,  the  blessing  of,  80  ;  the  wonder  of, 

225  ;  death  a,  297-8. 
Society,  bad,  58  ;  safety  and  happiness  of, 

54. 

Socraties  and  Christ,  122, 128, 139. 
Sorrow,  meaning  of,  44,  121 ;  a  veilH 

angel,  143  ;  its  uses,  148-9  ;  illustnit.-d, 

150;   the  majesty  of,  176;  relief  for, 

214,  302  ;  suggestions  of,  327. 
Soul,  destiny  of  the,  39  ;  and  the  world, 

42 ;  a  great. deep,  54  ;  when  strongest, 


INDEX. 


23 


61 ;  the  preacher's  all,  66 ;  troubled, 
100  ;  most  precious  of  all,  104  ;  fulness 
of,  116 ;  Christinas  morning  to  the, 
117 ;  and  stars,  122 ;  like  an  im- 
prisoned bird  —  deathless,  152;  proof 
of  a,  158  ;  quenchless,  163 ;  cannot 
perish,  167  ;  how  it  shows  its  grandeur, 
185  ;  apprehends  spiritual  realities, 
187  ;  the  mysery  of  the,  194 ;  down  the 
mystic  river,  202  ;  how  invigorated, 

-  208 ;  the  brave,  209 ;  dwarfed  by 
bigotry,  231 ;  a  reality,  232 ;  rever- 
ences only  goodness,  233  ;  this  its  in- 
troductory state,  238 ;  the  charter  of 
liberty  in  the,  250  ;  a,  to  let,  250  ;  wings 
growing  in  the,  253  ;  sure  of  spiritual 
things,  299 ;  mists  of  prove  religion 
real,  308  ;  privilege  of — sadness  of  the 
sinful,  316  ;  like  the  moon,  324  ;  per- 
petual youth  of — as  a  winged  seed, 
342  ;  kingdom  of  God  in,  358. 

Souls  here  as  much  as  hereafter,  50  ;  how 
strengthened,  185;  lofty,  200;  soaked 
into  the  flesh,  252. 

Spiritual  existence,  121, 123  ;  discipline  a 
solemn  duty,  155 ;  attainment,  200 ; 
standards  of  life,  328  ;  life,  336  ;  the, 
and  material,  350. 

Sponge  with  brains,  243  ;  existing  like  a, 
286. 

Standing  fast,  too  fast,  44. 

Star,  a  true  man  like  a,  261. 

Stars,  sentinels  of  heaven,  98 ;  and  the 
soul,  122  ;  chime  of  the  morning,  158  ; 
beautiful,  163  ;  of  the  legion  of  honor, 
173  ;  golden  ladders,  199. 

State,  purpose  of  the,  172  ;  exists  for 
man,  228  ;  necessity  for,  229  ;  claims  of 
—  grounds  of  stability,  261 ;  the  future, 
291. 

Steamship,  157  ;  once  an  idea,  244. 

Strength,  how  gained,  52  ;  born  of  suffer- 
ing, 185  ;  condition  of,  196. 

Success,  conditions  of,  195  ;  grows  out  of 
failure,  303. 

Sun,  a  chronometer,  158  ;  uses  its  power, 
202  ;  and  the  weed,  174. 

Superstition  a  witness  to  religion,  308. 

Suspicion  fruitful  of  misery,  209,  313. 


Sympathy  of  God  for  man,  100,  248  ;  the 
flowering  ol  life,  132  ;  for  sinners,  270, 
315. 

Tabernacles,  perishing,  277 ;  abiding, 
282. 

Te  Deums  of  peace,  85. 

Telescope,  man,  56  ;  the  Bible  a,  211. 

Telegraph  of  faith,  the,  50. 

Temper,  blessings  of  a  patient,  117. 

Temptation,  where  it  is,  27  ;  exposure  to, 
31 ;  conditions  of,  181. 

Test  of  character,  116  ;  of  position,  217. 

Theory  vs.  practice,  60. 

Thought,  the  worth  of,  102  ;  underrated, 
196  ;  the  fruit  of  208  ;  and  feeling  in  re- 
ligion, 222 ;  like  the  germ,  243. 

Throne,  silence  around  the,  38. 

Thrones  against  a  powder-mill,  87. 

Time,  the  utmost  promontory  of,  25  ;  the 
snow  of,  26  ;  the  oldest  best,  241. 

To-day  all  the  time  we  have,  25. 

Toil,  the  blessings  of,  179. 

To-morrow  not  ours,  81 ;  the  dreaded 
changed,  82  ;  the  everlasting,  339. 

Tract  societies  and  pine  stumps,  130. 

Transfiguration,  the  Mount  of,  281. 

Trial,  the  meaning  of,  147. 

Tribulation,  the  furnace  of,  180  ;  when  it 
hurts  a  man,  187  ;  a  part  of  God's  plan, 
304. 

Truth  fails  not,  35,  82 ;  should  be  bold, 
40 ;  progress  of,  64 ;  eternal,  65,  247  ; 
new  and  old,  88  ;  the  glory  of  spiritual, 
90  ;  immutable,  91 ;  the  organ-music  of, 
94 ;  the  pursuit  of,  95  ;  like  light,  119  5 
the  root  of  practical  life,  132  ;  poetry  ia, 
177  ;  primal,  where  found,  188  ;  ever- 
lasting, 203 ;  where  most  beaafiful, 
218  ;  is  poetry,  219  ;  its  enduring  na- 
ture, 231 ;  lyrical,  234 ;  its  dark  hemis- 
phere, 347  ;  and  life,  356  ;  the  king  of, 
357  ;  its  own  authority,  358. 

Truthfulness  a  rare  virtue,  51. 

Trust,  the  power  of,  26;  in  two  things, 
119  ;  changes  the  darkness,  183. 

Turks,  Douglass  and  the,  99. 

Unbelief,  the  mockery  of,  84. 


24 


INDEX, 


Union,  Christian,  50  ;  national,  126. 

Unitarian  freedom,  247 ;  sling  a  diction- 
ary at  every,  311. 

Unity  of  the  Christian  world,  146 -,  a  bond 
of,  234 ;  how  created,  247  ;  of  the  hu- 
man race,  344. 

Universal,  primal  truth  in  the,  188. 

Universalist,  247,  310 ;  sling  a  Bible  at 
every,  311. 

Universe,  reform  a  law  of  the,  39 ;  a  sys- 
tem of  exchange,  70 ;  the  only  perma- 
nent dominion  in,  115  ;  what  enriches 
the,  116 ;  God  voted  out  of  the,  120 ; 
a  temple,  136  ;  the  harmonies  of  the, 
164  ;  and  the  gospel,  166  ;  and  a  future 
life,  167  ;  the  highest  power  in  the,  251 ; 
God  at  the  helm  of  the,  307. 

University,  a  walking,  85. 

Unmerciful,  the  unblessed,  209. 

Utility,  the  of  philosophy,  74. 

Vain  man,  the,  suspects  himself,  58. 

Valley  Forge,  soldiers  of,  228. 

Vatican,  Raphael's  picture  in  the,  279. 

Vellum,  white  or  black,  34. 

Versailles,  Franklin  at,  230. 

Vesuvius,  quenching,  88. 

Vice  exhales  its  poison,  28 ;  the  evil  of, 
62 ;  the  worst  characteristics  of,  69 ; 
questions  of,  88. 

Violin,  a  one-stringed,  211. 

Virtue,  all  conditions  favor,  28  ;  testimo- 
nies to,  36  ;  inducements  to,  59  ;  what 
it  is,  174 ;  illustrated,  184 ;  a  one- 
stringed,  211 ;  and  the  State,  224. 

Visions  vain  without  work,  279  ;  needed, 
280. 

Voice,  the  still,  small,  216  ;  of  the  inner 
life,  222 ;  of  a  departed  child,  300  ; 
Jacob's,  312. 

War  and  the  gospel,  262  ;  the  horrors  of, 
263-4. 

Washington,  160,  228  ;  portrait  of  dese- 
crated, 328. 


William  the  Conqueror,  230. 

Wisdom  begets  humility,  195  ;  the  no- 
blest, 199  ;  a  nobler,  200  ;  weaves  the 
cycle  of  destiny,  304. 

Witches  of  old,  men  like,  218. 

Woman  and  the  gospel,  33  ;  elevated  by 
adversity,  148  ;  and  Christ  —  needs  re- 
ligion, 201 ;  influence  of,  242 ;  dis- 
crowned, 313  ;  the  courage  and  con- 
stancy of,  317,  336. 

Wooing  the  material  world,  31. 

Word  of  God,  the,  25  ;  and  works  war  not, 
212. 

Work,  how  crowned,  30  ;  the  spirit  of,  49, 
126 ;  God's,  79,  97 ;  God's  without, 
Christ's  within,  166  ;  the  world  a  place 
for,  179 ;  secondary  to  the  spirit  and 
results,  182  ;  only  the  selfish  irreligious, 
205 ;  the  fruit  of  thought,  208  ;  man 
without  like  a  sponge,  286  ;  of  modern 
chivalry,  276. 

Working  and  waiting,  43  ;  God's,  121. 

World,  the,  astonished,  41 ;  a  golden  drop, 
42  ;  who  overcomes,  52  ;  an  artificial, 
57  ;  how  moved,  91 ;  carried  onward, 
95  ;  a  reflex  of  ourselves,  116  ;  the  liga- 
tures of,  126 ;  the  master-speech  of, 
129  ;  in  eclipse,  143  ;  the  aspect  of  on 
Christinas,  146  ;  a  place  for  work,  179  } 
not  as  the  sceptic  thinks  —  a  race- 
course, 192  ;  the  autumn-Seasons  of  this, 
330 ;  not  dreary,  340 ;  the  whole  kin,  344. 

Wrong,  warfare  against  the,  317. 

Years,  three-score  and  ten,  63,  239. 

Yellow-fever,  negotiating  with,  246. 

Young  man  enjoying  life,  41 ;  in  danger, 
44 ;  the  journal  of,  84  ;  an  ill-natured, 
359. 

Young  men  and  progress,  62  ;  their  posi- 
tion and  work,  249  ;  of  America,  352. 

Youth,  the  Christ  of,  still  with  us,  275  ; 
the  friends  of  the  old  man's,  339. 

Zones,  men  are  moving,  183. 


LIVING    WORDS. 


A  DAT  !  It  has  risen  upon  us  from  the  great  deep  of 
eternity,  girt  round  with  wonder;  emerging  from  the 
womb  of  darkness ;  a  new  creation  of  life  and  light  spoken 
into  being  by  the  word  of  God.  In  itself  one  entire  and 
perfect  sphere  of  space  and  time,  filled  and  emptied  of 
the  sun.  Every  past  generation  is  represented  in  it ;  — 
it  is  the  flowering  of  all  history.  And  in  so  much  it  is 
richer  and  better  than -all  other  days  which  have  preceded 
it.  And  we  have  been  re-created  to  new  opportunities, 
with  new  powers ;  —  called  to  this  utmost  promontory  of 
actual  time,  —  this  centre  of  all  converging  life.  And  it 
is  for  to-day's  work  we  have  been  endowed ;  —  it  is  for 
this  that  we  are  pressed  and  surrounded  with  these  facil- 
ities. The  sum  of  our  entire  being  is  concentrated  here ; 
and  to-day  is  all  the  time  we  absolutely  have. 
3 


26  LIVING    WORDS. 

LIFE  is  a  crucible.  "We  are  thrown  into  it,  and  tried. 
The  actual  weight  and  value  of  a  man  are  expressed  in 
the  spiritual  substance  of  the  man.  All  else  is  dross. 


MANY  a  man  who  might  walk  over  burning  plough- 
shares into  heaven  stumbles  from  the  path  because  there 
is  gravel  in  his  shoes. 


AN  aged  Christian,  with  the  snow  of  time  on  his  head, 
may  remind  us  that  those  points  of  earth  are  whitest 
which  are  nearest  heaven. 


THE  spring  of  all  great  endeavor  is  a  great  trust,  push- 
ing men  forward  to  unseen  ends,  away  from  the  fasten- 
ings of  custom,  out  into  struggle,  and  hazard,  and  mystery. 
So  Luther  tosses  the  Pope's  bull  on  the  burning  pile,  and 
sets  Christendom  on  fire.  So  Columbus  goes  in  his  little 
vessel  far  away  from  known  land,  and  finds  a  fresh,  green 
world  behind  the  veil.  So  Hancock  and  Carroll,  trusting 
in  the  everlasting  right  of  freedom,  and  risking  life,  for- 
tune, and  sacred  honor,  strike  the  drum-beat  that  echoes 
round  the  globe.  And,  still  rising  in  my  statement,  I  say 
that  the  highest  power  is  the  highest  trust,  — is  "  Trust 
in  the  Lord  with  all  thine  heart." 


LIVING    WORDS.  27 

THE  best  answer  to  all  objections  urged  against  prayer 
is  the  fact,  that  man  cannot  help  praying  ;  for  we  may  bo 
sure  that  that  which  is  so  spontaneous  and  ineradicable  in 
human  nature  has  its  fitting  objects  and  methods  in  the 
arrangements  of  a  boundless  Providence. 


IN  the  spirit  of  the  Christian  there  is  a  perpetual 
spring-tide,  and  in  the  wintry  valleys  he  hears  the  rip- 
ple of  ever-flowing  streams. 


WHAT  is  most  characteristic  in  true  religion  —  what 
is  most  wonderful  —  is  the  fact  that  it  wells  up  right 
against  a  man's  desires,  his  inclinations,  his  preconcep- 
tions. It  shatters  his  old  mouldy  crust  of  habits;  it 
changes  the  currents  of  his  thought ;  it  makes  his  dumb, 
stupefied  conscience  speak  right  out,  and  speak  to  the  pur- 
pose; it  transfigures,  it  regenerates  him.  If  it  cannot 
make  a  small  power  large,  it  makes  it  good.  If  it  can- 
not give  a  big  brain  in  the  place  of  a  contracted  one,  it 
transmutes  a  man's  intellect  all  into  a  divine  essence  of 
purity  and  love,  or  freights  it  with  the  thunder  and 
lightning  of  dauntless  and  effective  energy. 


THE  temptation  is  not  here,  where  you  are  reading  about 
it,  or  praying  about  it.  It  is  down  in  your  shop,  among 
bales  and  boxes,  ten-penny  nails,  and  sand-paper. 


28  LIVING    WORDS. 

STAND  at  your  post  in  the  army,  and  obey  your  orders. 
You  do  not  control  the  great  movement  of  the  battle. 
You  cannot  tell  how  God  will  rally  the  scattered  wings, 
or  call  up  his  reserve. 


No  condition  is  unfavorable  to  virtue,  where  virtue  is. 


STRIKING  for  the  occasion,  for  the  immediate  truth  or 
duty  of  the  hour,  men  have  struck  for  all  ages. 


WITH  a  vision  sufficiently  clear  we  might  see  in  the 
germ  the  full  circle  of  the  flower ;  in  the  acorn  the  branch- 
ing oak,  with  five  hundred  summers  murmuring  in  its 
leaves.  So  in  the  ground  and  seed-plot  of  home  we  may 
have  pre-vision  of  the  best  conditions  of  this  world  or  the 
other. 


LIFE,  whether  in  this  world  or  any  other,  is  the  sum 
of  our  attainment,  our  experience,  our  character.  The 
conditions  are  secondary.  In  what  other  world  shall  we 
be  more  surely  than  we  are  here  ? 


IN  some  way  the  secret  vice  exhales  its  poison;  and 
the  evil  passion,  however  cunningly  masked,  stains  through 
to  the  surface. 


LIVING    WORDS.  29 

Is  not  this  a  very  melancholy  spectacle  ?  A  man  stand- 
ing in  some  high  place  of  intellect  and  honor,  splendid  as 
ever  in  the  brain,  but  on  one  side  of  him  —  the  moral  side 
—  stricken  clear  down  with  paralysis  !  A  man  saturated 
•with  the  finest  culture,  with  the  most  delicate  sensibilities 
playing  in  his  nature,  with  the  escutcheon  of  pride  in  eye 
and  forehead,  flushed  with  the  heraldry  of  genius,  scorning 
the  temptations  of  the  flesh,  beating  upward  like  an  eagle 
towards  some  lofty  point ;  yet  carrying  a  hard,  cold,  selfish 
heart,  and  marked  as  a  deserter  from  the  right.  When 
some  great  occasion  breaks,  and  imperilled  justice  calls 
to  him  from  the  ground,  and  far  above  all  mean  inter- 
ests and  clanging  factions  the  voice  of  duty  summons 
him  like  the  very  trump  of  God,  he  vacillates,  he  takes 
up  the  lance  droopingly,  he  lets  the  ark  of  the  righteous 
cause  totter,  he  cowers  before  the  dagon  of  the  hour,  he 
falls  away  from  the  good  cause,  he  betrays  it,  nay,  he 
becomes  hot  against  it ;  and  the  words  of  the  man,  that 
might  have  been  tones  of  regeneration  and  of  victory,  clat- 
ter upon  our  ears  like  "thirty  pieces  of  silver." 


WE  send  out  from  the  home  incalculable  influences  for 
good  or  evil,  into  the  world  and  into  the  future.     At  the 
altar  and  the  hearth-stone  we  grasp  the  round  earth,  — 
we  touch  all  ages. 
3* 


30  LIVING    WORDS. 

How  many  men  in  business  are  there  who  steer  by 
their  ledgers,  and  who  virtually  act  upon  the  principle  of 
making  money  in  any  way  that  they  can !  How  many 
politicians,  eloquent  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  whose  regard 
for  freedom  is  the  regard  of  an  owl  for  the  daylight ! 
How  many  like  these  are  there  who  really  have  any  Sinai 
or  any  decalogue  higher  than  some  official  chair,  or  more 
vivid  than  the  stamp  on  a  gold  eagle  ? 


THE  world  is  bad  enough,  but  we  see  the  depravity 
by  light  which  streams  from  veins  of  goodness  running 
through  it ;  and  around  its  lazar-houses  and  shambles,  its 
giant  selfishness  and  pointed  deceits,  there  are  martyr- 
graves  and  patriot  battle-fields,  —  Love  burning  forever 
like  a  vestal  fire,  and  Faith  looking  calmly  upward. 


IT  is  not  the  great  occasion,  but  the  great  spirit,  that 
crowns  and  glorifies  our  work. 


SCEPTICISM  has  never  founded  empires,  established 
principles,  or  changed  the  world's  heart.  The  great 
doers  in  history  have  always  been  men  of  faith. 


LIVING    WORDS.  31 

GLOKIFY  a  lie,  legalize  a  lie,  arm  and  equip  a  lie,  con- 
secrate a  lie  with  solemn  forms  and  awful  penalties,  and 
after  all  it  is  nothing  but  a  lie.  It>  rots  a  land  and  cor- 
rupts a  people  like  any  other  lie,  and  by  and  by  the  white 
light  of  God's  truth  shines  clear  through  it,  and  shows  it 
to  be  a  lie. 


MAN  has  wooed  the  material  world  as  a  lover  woes  his 
mate,  detecting  in  every  "no"  a  hesitating  "yes." 


IT  is  a  most  fearful  fact  to  think  of,  that  in  every  heart 
there  is  some  secret  spring  that  would  be  weak  at  the 
touch  of  temptation,  and  that  is  liable  to  be  assailed. 
Fearful,  and  yet  salutary  to  think  of;  for  the  thought 
may  serve  to  keep  our  moral  nature  braced.  It  warns  us 
that  we  can  never  stand  at  ease,  or  lie  down  in  this  field 
of  life,  without  sentinels  of  watchfulness  and  camp-fires  of 
prayer. 


A  MAN'S  love  for  his  native  land  lies  deeper  than  any 
logical  expression,  among  those  pulses  of  the  heart  which 
vibrate  to  the  sanctities  of  home,  and|fo  the  thoughts 
which  leap  up  from  his  fathers'  graves. 


32  LIVING    WOEDS. 

THE  downright  fanatic  is  nearer  to  the  heart  of  things 
than  the  cool  and  slippery  disputant. 


WE  read  and  hear  many  scriptural  passages  with  indif- 
ference, until  some  personal  experience  elicits  their  mean- 
ing. A  wave  of  the  heart  washes  over  them,  and  then 
we  see  all  their  depth  and  beauty. 


LET  Newton  ponder  the  fall  of  an  apple,  and  he  dis- 
cerns the  law  by  which  a  rain-drop  descends  to  the  ocean, 
and  a  planet  swims  round  the  sun.  Thus  rises  the  ladder 
of  induction  from  the  earth  to  the  skies ;  and  with  one 
true  principle  the  philosopher  unlocks  the  wards  of  the 
universe. 


A  SMALL  lie,  if  it  actually  is  a  lie,  condemns  a  man  as 
much  as  a  big  and  black  falsehood.  If  a  man  will  de- 
liberately cheat  to  the  amount  of  a  single  cent,  give  him 
opportunity  and  he  would  cheat  to  any  amount. 


WE  do  not  need  martyr-stakes,  nor  battle-fields,  nor 
any  public  scenery,  to  show  us  the  good  and  true  man. 
His  little  acts,  his  daily  conduct,  will  furnish  tests.  One 
flash  reveals  the  diamond. 


LIVING    WORDS.  33 

THAT  sex  which  almost  alone  was  friendly  to  the  Sav- 
iour, —  which  anointed  his  feet  with  ointment,  and  fol- 
lowed him  with  tears  to  his  cross,  —  which  prepared 
sweet  spices  for  his  burial,  and  was  the  first  to  hail  his 
resurrection,  has,  in  turn,  been  especially  befriended  by 
his  Gospel.  It  has  raised  her  from  the  degrading  con- 
dition of  a  slave,  or  her  still  more  degrading  condition  as 
a  mere  instrument  of  passion,  to  be  a  refined  and  purify- 
ing influence  in  society,  and_to  lend  to  home  the  dignity 
and  the  grace  of  the  mother,  wife,  sister,  and  daughter. 


HILL  and  valley,  seas  and  constellations,  are  but  stereo- 
types of  divine  ideas  appealing  to  and  answered  by  the 
living  soul  of  man. 

THE  Bible  is  not  to  be  judged  in  all  respects  like  a 
history  composed  since  history  became  a  science;  but 
take  that  old  volume,  which  has  survived  the  decay  of 
ages  and  the  shocks  of  revolution ;  whose  every  book  is 
an  epoch,  whose  every  leaf  almost  turns  over  a  century, 
and  whose  simple  narratives  open  to  us  the  experience  and 
link  us  to  the  sympathies  of  our  common  nature  four 
thousand  years  ago ;  take  it,  and  apply  to  its  records  the 
same  tests  you  apply  to  Polybius  or  Livy,  and  the  sceptic, 
if  his  scepticism  is  honest,  will  find  less  room  for  his  cavils 
and  his  sneers. 


34  LIVING    WORDS. 

MARY  was  evidently  one  of  those  characters  who  cause 
us  to  overlook  what  they  do,  in  the  consideration  of  what 
they  are.  Her  heart  was  a  censer  of  devout  breathings, 
and  her  whole  being  vibrated  to  holy  influences  like  a 
harp.  It  seems  to  be  the  mission  of  such  natures  not  so 
much  to  act  as  to  shine  in  their  own  calm  brightness,  liko 
planets,  reflecting  upon  us  a  light  which  has  been  poured 
into  them  from  unseen  urns.  But  wherever  they  move 
their  presence  is  felt ;  man's  heart  grows  better  for  the 
time,  and  his  sins  lie  still ;  while  through  the  rank  and 
seething  atmosphere  of  earth  they  impart  glimpses  and 
suggestions  of  heaven. 


THERE  is  a  higher  scale  of  value  in  God's  universe  than 
dollars  and  cents.  There  is  an  absolute  Right,  and  all 
conventional  falsehoods  must  shrivel  before  it.  There  is 
a  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  and  it  shall  yet  come  in  the 
earth. 


Is  it  true  that  we  are  not  looking  for  the  divine  birth- 
right of  man  within,  in  the  moulding  of  the  heart  and  the 
capacities  of  the  soul,  but  only  in  the  color  of  the  face 
and  the  shape  of  the  skull ;  and  virtually  proclaiming  that 
God  has  written  the  charter  of  personal  freedom  on  white 
vellum,  not  on  black  ? 


LIVING    WORDS.  35 

THERE  is  a  sufficiency  in  the  Bible,  —  a  meaning  in  its 
simple  oracles  such  as  the  perplexed  mariner  finds  in  the 
compass ;  such  as  the  pilgrim  knows  when  amid  the  un- 
certainties of  his  journey  he  discovers  a  sign  of  guidance, 
and  a  spot  of  repose. 

IT  is  only  to  our  limited  and  faithless  eyesight  that  any 
righteous  cause,  falling  into  the  ground,  seems  to  perish. 
Scaffolds,  despotisms,  ruinous  battle-fields ;  —  these  are  all 
conditions  of  the  harvest."  Truth,  or  justice,  or  liberty,  — 
swathe  it  in  parchment  cerements;  dig  its  grave  with 
bayonets;  press  it  down  with  thrones,  bastiles,  slave- 
blocks  ;  sprinkle  it  all  over  with  the  venerable  dust  of  des- 
potism, and  in  that  dust  trace  the  lines  of  its  epitaph.  It 
may  be  buried,  but  has  it  really  perished  ?  Can  you  bury 
the  spirit  of  Christ  ?  The  earth  rolls,  the  sun  shines  on, 
the  spring-winds  blow,  God's  truth  flows  into  the  soul  of 
man,  and  not  a  kernel  of  the  righteous  seed  will  fail  to 
ripen  at  the  last. 


MAN'S  own  moral  nature  —  his  own  free  will  —  is  evi- 
dence of  a  moral  intelligence  and  will  above  and  behind 
the  material  universe  ;  and  his  own-consciousness  of  limi- 
tation and  defect  is  an  intuitive  recognition  of  that  un- 
bounded and  perfect  One  who  alone  is  the  Origin,  the 
Life,  the  Controller  of  all. 


36  LIVING    WORDS. 

WHAT  a  proof  of  the  Divine  tenderness  is  there  in  the 
human  heart  itself,  which  is  the  organ  and  receptacle  of 
so  many  sympathies  !  When  we  consider  how  exquisite 
are  those  conditions  by  which  it  is  even  made  capable  of 
so  much  suffering,  —  the  capabilities  of  a  child's  heart,  of 
a  mother's  heart,  —  what  must  be  the  nature  of  Him  who 
fashioned  its  depths,  and  strung  its  chords  ? 


THIS  is  the  main  point,  —  not  universal  progress,  but 
human  progress :  not  progress  everywhere,  but  progress 
somewhere.  Grant  but  that,  and  all  humanity  becomes 
hopeful ;  —  grant  but  the  capacity,  and  the  doctrine  is 
practicable ;  —  let  the  law  be  in  operation  only  at  one 
point,  still  it  is  a  law,  and  as  such  is  to  be  heeded  and 
acted  upon. 


EVERY  deed  of  dishonor,  every  victim  of  vice,  every 
ghastly  spectacle  of  crime,  is  an  eloquent  testimony  to  the 
need  and  the  worth  of  virtue. 


THE  drunkard  boasts  of  his  freedom  with  a  tongue  that 
he  cannot  control,  and  with  a  thirst  that  drives  him  to  his 

cups But  true  freedom  consists  not  merely  in  the 

ability  to  do,  but  in  the  power  to  refrain  from  doing ;  and 
the  latter  power  the  votary  of  vice  does  not  possess. 


LIVING    WORDS.  37 

IF  through  the  melancholy  sunshine  of  idiocy  there 
should  break  a  gleam  of  true  intelligence,  the  idiot  would 
at  least  feel  no  self-rebuke  for  that  simmering  brain,  — that 
sad,  pleased,  worthless  life.  But  what  shall  he  say  who 
has  dissolved  the  priceless  pearl  of  intellect  in  the  wine- 
cup  of  debauch?  who  has  sacrificed,  yes,  deliberately 
murdered  every  mental  gift,  and  made  himself  an  idiot  ? 
The  blind  man  may  feel  at  times  that  his  privation  is 
insupportable,  and  mourn  the  blank  that  has  come  be- 
tween him  and  the  beautiful  earth  and  sky ;  yet  within 
there  may  be  "a  light  which  no  calamity  can  darken," 
—  the  scenery  of  a  happy  memory,  and  the  vernal  fresh- 
ness of  an  unviolated  conscience.  But  what  shall  he  say 
who  has  killed  the  optic  nerve  of  his  own  soul,  and 
quenched  his  moral  eyesight?  We  lament  the  dear  friend 
snatched  from  us  by  death,  yet  as  we  scatter  blossoms 
above  his  grave  our  thoughts  grow  fragrant  with  the 
recollection  of  his  virtues,  and  amidst  the  mystery  of  the 
dispensation  religion  springs  up  to  strengthen  and  awe 
us.  But  what  of  him,  the  worn-out  libertine,  the  soul- 
sick  epicure?  the  drunkard,  who,  while  he  might  have 
acted  nobly  with  the  living,  folds  himself  in  the  cerements 
of  the  grave,  and  walks  by  choice  among  the  charnels  of 
the  dead? 


No  good  work  is  foreign  to  the  interests  of  religion. 
4 


38  LIVING    WORDS. 


IT  will  make  sweet  music  enough  in  heaven  —  up 
among  the  harps  and  the  angels  —  though  the  tide  of  song 
to  God  and  the  Lamb  comes  mingling  from  the  lips  of 
Presbyterian,  and  Methodist,  and  Baptist,  and  Uni- 
versalist. 


PEACE  is  an  attribute  of  the  highest  power.  Silence 
reigns  throughout  those  enormous  spaces  where  worlds 
travel  on  their  way.  Silence  wraps  that  electric  life  which 
animates  nature,  and  which  is  thus  more  powerful  than 
when  .it  is  disclosed  in  thunder.  A  sea  of  silence  lies 
around  the  throne  of  God,  and  the  Almighty  speaks  not, 
and  utters  no  sound.  So  in  this  peace  of  a  religious 
soul,  there  is  evidence  of  a  hidden  power  that  is  greater 
than  any  outward  force. 


THE  golden  age  is  not  in  the  past,  but  in  the  future ; 
not  in  the  origin  of  human  experience,  but  in  its  consum- 
mate flower ;  not  opening  in  Eden,  but  out  from  Geth- 
semane. 


GOD'S  work  is  carried  on  by  oscillations :  now  the  truth 
swings  to  this  extreme,  now  to  that;  and  between  he 
weaves  his  steady  and  perfect  plan. 


LIVING     WORDS.  39 

REFORM  is  legitimate.  It  is  so  in  accordance  -with 
the  general  law  of  improvement,  and  with  the  fact  that 
there  is  a  tendency  in  the  course  of  time  to  corrupt  prin- 
ciples and  institutions ;  so  that,  previous  to  the  period  of 
reformation,  their  first  estate  is  the  best Reforma- 
tion is  a  law  of  the  universe,  operating  as  irresistibly  as 
gravitation  or  the  tides.  An  Omnipotent  Providence  is 
implicated  with  its  march ;  and  so  it  works  on,  levelling 
and  lifting  up,  grinding  down  opposition,  changing  the 
face  of  history,  and  unconsciously  shifting  the  very  ground 
beneath  our  feet. 


THE  busy,  inventive,  achieving  intellect,  of  itself  re- 
futes the  doubt  of  the  sceptic,  and  the  dogma  of  the 
materialist ;  reveals  the  sanctions  of  the  highest  faith,  and 
justifies  the  interest  which  religion  takes  in  the  soul  of 
man. 


THERE  is  moral  suggestion  in  this  universal  restless- 
ness, —  this  hum,  and  movement,  and  ceaseless  toil.  It 
proclaims  a  good  yet  to  be  attained,  or  else  that  the  good 
which  is  attained  is  unsatisfactory.  It  is  a  testimony  to 
the  incompleteness  of  the  earthly  state,  and  the  transcend- 
ent destinies  of  the  soul. 


40  LIVING    WORDS. 

CERTAINLY,  truth  should  be  strenuous  and  bold ;  but 
the  strongest  things  are  not  always  the  noisiest,  as  any  one 
may  see  who  compares  scolding  with  logic. 


WE  must  die  alone.  To  the  very  verge  of  the  stream 
our  friends  may  accompany  us ;  they  may  bend  over  us, 
they  may  cling  to  us  there ;  but  that  one  long  wave  from 
the  sea  of  eternity  washes  up  to  the  lips,  sweeps  us  from 
the  shore,  and  we  go  forth  alone  !  In  that  untried  and 
utter  solitude,  then,  what  can  there  be  for  us  but  the 
pulsation  of  that  assurance,  "  I  am  not  alone,  because  the 
Father  is  with  me  !  " 


LIFE  is  a  problem.  Not  merely  a  premiss  from  which 
we  start,  but  a  goal  towards  which  we  proceed.  It  is  an 
opportunity  for  us  not  merely  to  get,  but  to  attain ;  not 
simply  to  have,  but  to  be.  Its  standard  of  failure  or  suc- 
cess is  not  outward  fortune,  but  inward  possession. 


IF  any  one  maintains  reftrm  as  a  substitute  for  Chris- 
tianity, he  attributes  to  the  stream  the  virtues  of  the 
fountain ;  he  ascribes  to  the  arteries  the  central  function 
of  the  heart.  For  from  Christianity  beats  the  great  pulse 
of  this  world's  hope. 


LIVING    WORDS.  41 

I  MUST  pity  that  young  man  who,  with  a  little  finery 
of  dress  and  recklessness  of  manner,  with  his  coarse  pas- 
sions all  daguerreotyped  upon  his  face,  goes  whooping 
through  these  streets,  driving  an  animal  much  nobler  in 
its  conduct  than  himself,  or  swaggers  into  some  haunt  of 
shame,  and  calls  it  —  "  Enjoying  life  ! "  He  thinks  he  is 
astonishing  the  world  !  and  he  is  astonishing  the  thinking 
part  of  it,  who  are  astonished  that  he  is  not  astonished  at 
himself.  For  look  at  that  compound  of  flash  and  impu- 
dence, and  say  if  on  all  this  earth  there  is  anything  more 
pitiable  !  He  know  anything  of  the  true  joy  of  life  ? 
As  well  say  that  the  beauty  and  immensity  of  the  uni- 
verse were  all  enclosed  in  the  field  where  the  prodigal  lay 
among  the  husks  and  the  swine  ! 


IF  one  wishes  to  unlearn  selfishness  let  him  go  apart, 
and  stand  alone  by  himself. 


RELIGION,  like  the  law  of  gravity,  binds  each  element 
of  our  nature  to  its  own  orbit.  It  gives  the  peace  of  a 
harmonious  character,  where  the  moral  and  intellectual 
powers  hold  their  lawful  spheres,  and  the  appetites  fill 
their  restricted  place,  and  the  law  of  purity  and  holiness 
reigns  supreme. 

4* 


42  LIVING     WORDS. 

ANY  scheme  which  makes  man  the  head  and  centre  of 
all  things  will  fail  in  its  applications.  The  mariner 
knows  but  little  concerning  the  vast,  unfathomable  sea, 
who  assumes  that  it  was  made  and  spread  out  solely  for 
the  advantage  of  his  little  ship. 


IT  is  difficult  to  believe  that  a  true  gentleman  will  ever 
become  a  gamester,  a  libertine,  or  a  sot. 


THIS  world,  with  all  its  wealth  and  splendor,  hangs  but 
a  golden  drop  in  the  immensities  of  God,  —  in  the  illimit- 
able immensities  that  open  before  the  soul. 


IN  the  market  a  man  exposes  himself  to  impositions  and 
losses  such  as  cannot  be  reckoned  by  dollars  and  cents. 
He  is  liable  to  be  deluded  into  the  idea  that  material  good 
is  the  only  good ;  ....  to  make  business  not  only  essen- 
tial, as  it  .is,  but  all-important,  as  it  is  not. 


THERE  is  joy  in  every  normal  state  of  being :  there  is 
joy  in  heaven.  Everything  that  is  contrary  to  this  is  evi- 
dently abnormal,  transitional,  or,  in  the  instrumentality  of 
discipline,  working  out  to  joy. 


LIVING    WORDS.  43 

A  MAN'S  failure  to  observe  the  highest  standard  of 
living  is  not  always  the  effect  of  wilful  disregard ;  but 
depends  much  upon  the  moral  plane  in  which  he  moves. 


HOWEVER  logical  our  induction,  the  end  of  the  thread 
is  fastened  upon  the  assurance  of  faith. 


WHILE  it  is  true  that  a  miracle  demands  greater  evi- 
dence than  an  ordinary  occurrence,  the  united  experience 
of  the  race  cannot  demonstrate  the  impossibility  of  such  a 
thing. 

Do  you  expect  with  one  stroke  of  the  hammer,  or  with 
all  the  hammering  you  may  make,  to  shatter  the  great 
gates  of  sin,  and  let  in  the  millenial  daylight  at  a  single 
burst  ?  It  is  none  of  your  business  whether  that  victory 
comes  now  or  a  hundred  years  ahead.  Work  and  wait, 

that  is  your  office Do  something  for  truth  and 

righteousness.  But  fret  not  because  all  is  not  done  at 
once.  Come  in  when  the  sun  goes  down ;  come  in  when 
the  arm  grows  weak ;  come  in,  old,  bowed  head,  whitened 
with  still  unsuccessful  toil,  —  come  in  and  gird  yourself, 
and  wait  upon  Divine  Providence,  now  that  you  have 
toiled.  The  process  will  go  on.  The  harvest  is  sure. 


44  LIVING    WORDS. 

SORROW  does  not  predicate  annihilation,  but  develop- 
ment. There  is  compensation  in  all  things  around  us. 
There  must  be  in  this  experience.  The  real  counter- 
stroke  to  the  pulse  of  mortal  anguish  is  not  the  full  stop 

of  death,  but  the  vibration  of  immortality Deep 

human  sorrow ;  —  do  you  argue  annihilation  in  that  ?  or  is 
there  not  a  prophecy  in  it  that  with  every  beat  of  the 
heart  shatters  the  theory  that  a  troubled  life  has  a  dark 
end? 


NOTHING  is  so  odious  and  so  dangerous  as  the  attitude 
of  the  young  man  who  has  grown,  or  rather  lapsed,  into 
self-confidence,  and  drops  the  curb  of  restraint  while  he 
runs  away  with  the  reins. 


As  to  environments,  the  Kingliest  Being  ever  born  in 
the  flesh  lay  in  a  manger.  What  a  miserable  thing  to  see 
clay  in  brocade  and  velvet  shrugging  its  shoulders  at  clay 
in  coarse  woollen  and  with  black  thumbs  ! 


SOME  men  who  stand  fast  in  a  good  cause  stand  too  fast. 
They  will  not  consent  to  carry  out  a  part  of  their  work 
unless  they  carry  out  the  whole  of  it  at  the  same  time. 
The  right  thing  must  be  done  all  at  once,  or  nothing  right 
must  be  done. 


LIVING    WORDS.  45 

KNOWLEDGE  and  piety  burn  and  brighten  with  an  un- 
divided flame.  Revelation  and  science  are  continually 
interpreting  one  another,  while  every  day  the  material 
universe  is  unfolding  a  more  spiritual  significance,  and  in- 
dicating its  subservience  to  a  spiritual  end. 


THERE  is  a  close  alliance  between  true  philosophy  and 
true  religion.  That  the  New  Testament  is  eminently  free 
from  fanaticism,  and  makes  no  appeal  to  mere  credulity, 
any  one  will  see  who  examines.  That  it  is  rational  and 
sober  constitutes  one  of  its  great  internal  evidences. 


MUST  a  man  get  a  correct  philosophy  of  prayer  before 
he  prays?  Must  the  child,  ready  to  run  into  its  father's 
arms,  stop  and  study  mental  processes  before  it  yields  to 
the  impulses  of  its  love  ? 


OBJECTS  close  to  the  eye  shut  out  much  larger  ob- 
jects on  the  horizon;  and  splendors  born  only  of  the 
earth  eclipse  the  stars.  So  a  man  sometimes  covers 
up  the  entire  disc  of  eternity  with  a  dollar,  and 
quenches  transcendent  glories  with  a  little  shining 
dust. 


46  LIVING    WORDS. 

THROUGH  transient  conditions  we  work  for  permanent 
ends,  and  that  only  is  profit  which,  adding  to  the  sub- 
stance of  our  immortal  nature,  becomes  in  us  spiritual 
power  and  blessedness,  and  similitude  to  God. 


THERE  are  men  so  metallic  and  hollow  themselves  that 
all  they  touch  rings  as  if  it  were  metallic  and  hollow  also. 
In  passing  through  their  hands  it  becomes  for  the  time 
being  electrotyped  with  their  own  baseness. 


IN  the  isolation  of  his  clear,  cold  intellect,  the  sceptic 
abides  in  a  glacial  and  spectral  universe.  No  glow  from 
the  affections  lights  up  the  frost  and  shadow  of  the  grave. 
He  feels  no  prophecy  in  the  thrill  of  the  human  heart,  — 
in  the  incompleteness  of  nature.  He  believes  merely  in 
things  tangible,  and  sees  only  in  the  day-time.  He  will 
not  confess  the  authenticity  of  that  paler  light  of  faith 
which  was  meant  to  shine  when  the  sunshine  of  reason 
falls  short,  and  the  firmament  of  mystery  is  over  our 
heads. 


WE  believe  that  though  this  body  shall  drop  to  ashes, 
the  soul  shall  go  beaming  upward  like  a  star.  But  of 
what  use  is  this  belief  without  corresponding  action  ? 


LIVING    WORDS.  47 

CHKISTIANITY  furnishes  the  only  foundation  of  a  har- 
monious and  rational  life.  While  it  pours  upon  this  world 
the  light  of  another,  it  also  burns  away  those  ghastly  and 
distorting  mists  which  evolve  from  the  depths  of  unguided 
speculation,  and  is  as  unfavorable  to  superstition  as  it  is  to 
atheism.  It  urges  a  code  of  duty,  strict  yet  simple ;  fitted 
to  beings  of  earthly  mould  yet  of  immortal  destiny. 


THE  religion  of  philosophy  consists  of  right  views  of 
things,  and  a  prudential  schooling  of  the  passions.  True 
religion  consists  in  a  right  state  of  the  affections,  and  a 
renunciation  of  self.  In  the  one  case  religion  may  "  play 
round  the  head,  but  come  not  near  the  heart;"  in  the 
other  it  breaks  up  the  great  deep  of  conscience,  and  pours 
an  intense  light  upon  the  springs  of  motive.  Philosophy 
contains  the  idea  of  intellectual  rectitude;  religion,  of 
moral  obedience.  Philosophy  speaks  of  virtue ;  religion, 
of  holiness.  Philosophy  rests  upon  development;  religion 
requires  regeneration. 


THE  grand  current  of  events  runs  not  downward  or 
backward.  The  spirit  within  these  rapid  wheels  of  time, 
turning  them  this  way  and  that,  still  moves  them  forward 
and  to  blessed  ends. 


48  LIVING    \YORDS. 

IT  matters  little  to  what  pole  of  doctrine  the  intellect 
swings,  if  the  heart  hangs  impenetrated  and  untouched. 


EVERY  man  in  this  world,  be  he  boot-black  or  emperor, 
is  a  complete  instrument.  He  may  be  of  greater  or  less 
compass,  but  he  has  all  the  harmonies,  —  the  entire  dia- 
tonic scale,  —  every  chord,  every  octave.  In  some  way 
the  eternal  grandeurs  strike  him,  sounding  the  deep  tones 
of  faith  and  conscience ;  in  some  way  the  world  touches 
the  meaner  and  flatter  keys.  The  great  thing  to  be  con- 
sidered is,  what  kind  of  music  he  habitually  makes. 


THERE  is  always  reason  to  hope  and  be  strong  when  a 
good  principle  once  gets  a  foothold  in  the  world.  A  true 
principle  never  dies.  A  grain  of  seed,  sown  in  truth  and 
holiness,  will  spring  up  to  fruition ;  though  it  may  be  long, 
long  ere  it  shall  flower  in  its  beauty,  or  spread  its  green 
leaves  to  the  sun. 


WHO  says  any  man  is  hopeless,  utterly  degraded,  fit 
only  to  be  destroyed  ?  He  falters  from  the  confidence  of 
Christ.  His  revenge  gets  the  better  of  his  reason.  He 
knows  not  what  spirit  he  is  of. 


LIVING    WORDS.  49 

MANY  a  stripling  considers  his  excesses  as  the  crackling 
of  the  ethereal  flame,  the  dross  of  inspiration,  and  as  es- 
sential to  the  part  which  he  has  assumed  as  the  "eye  in 
a  fine  frenzy  rolling."  It  generally  happens,  however, 
that  his  achievements  are  limited  to  the  darker  hemis- 
phere of  genius.  He  exhibits  little  of  Sheridan  save  his 
recklessness,  and  nothing  of  Byron  except  the  gin  and 
water.  It  has  been  said  that  "the  defects  of  great  men 
are  the  consolation  of  the  dunces ;"  but  they  are  also  the 
sorrow  of  the  truly  wise,  who  in  the  very  proportions  of 
the  achievement  detect  the  greatness  of  the  aberration. 
And  it  is  idle  to  say  that  there  is  any  necessary  connec- 
tion between  the  achievement  and  the  aberration.  While 
Milton  sings  to  us  from  the  gates  of  Paradise,  we  know 
that  the  essential  inspiration  of  genius  flows  not  from  tur- 
bid fountains ;  and  while  Newton  treads  upward  among 
the  stars,  it  is  evident  that  might  and  comprehensiveness 
of  mind  need  not  the  feculent  leaven  of  passion. 


No  one  can  truly  see  Christ,  and  drink  in  the  influence 
of  his  character,  and  not  be  a  Christian  at  heart. 


IT  will  depend  upon  the  spirit  in  which  we  work 
whether  the  agencies  about  us  will  become  agents  of  good 
or  of  evil. 

5 


60  LIVING    WORDS; 

IN  every  Christian  denomination  there  is  enough  vital, 
kindling  Christianity,  to  make"  good  hearts. 


THIS  is  the  union  of  Christians  that  I  ask  for :  Not 
an  identity  of  doctrine ;  not  an  indifference  to  articles  of 
belief;  not  a  worshipping  in  one  place  or  one  form ;  but  a 
recognition  of  the  great  common  humanity,  —  of  the  right 
of  opinion,  —  of  the  oneness  of  the  Christ-like  Image  seen 
through  many  human  forms. 


HE  who  avoids  the  battle  of  life  remains  weak  and  un- 
ready ;  and  only  he  who  contends  for  the  mastery  wins 
the  crown. 


THE  radical  condition  of  all  business  intercourse  is  rev- 
erence for  principle,  —  confidence  in  the  sanction  that 
gives  credit  to  the  note  of  hand,  and  that  imparts  potency 
to  seal  and  signature.  It  is  that  extends  a  telegraph  of 
mutual  faith  around  the  globe,  maintains  a  bond  of  com- 
munion between  men  at  opposite  ends  of  the  earth,  and 
whitens  the  sea  with  commerce. 


WE  have  souls  here  as  much  as  we  shall  have  hereafter. 


LIVING    WORDS.  51 

No  more  important  duty  can  be  urged  upon  those  who 
are  entering  the  great  theatre  of  life  than  simple  loyalty 
to  their  best  convictions. 


FAR  through  the  opening  vista  of  rent  devices  and 
broken  symbols,  like  the  heaving  billows  of  a  mighty  sea, 
the  tide  of  Christian  philanthropy  is  rolling  on.  Men  of 
all  sects  are  there.  The  Catholic  is  there,  with  his  cruci- 
fix pressed  to  his  bosom.  The  Methodist  comes  on,  sing- 
ing the  sweet  hymns  of  Wesley.  The  Baptist  brings  his 
robe  of  immersion.  The  Presbyterian  stands  upright,  as 
his  iron  fathers  did  of  old,  to  pray  in  simple  reverence  and 
freedom.  The  Universalist  chants  his  anthem  of  restora- 
tion and  holiness.  But  they  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder. 
They  all  point  upward,  earnestly  upward,  to  that  great 
banner  which  waves  over  all,  whose  device  is  the  Crucified 
Jesus,  —  whose  inscription,  all  over  in  letters  of  blessed 
light,  is  his  last  command:  "Love  one  another;"  — 
is  the  spirit  of  his  pure  and  undefiled  religion :  "  Visit  the 
fatherless  and  widows,  in  their  affliction ;  keep  your- 
selves unspotted  from  the  world" 


THOROUGH  truthfulness  —  truthfulness  to  others  and 
to  ourselves  —  is  a  rare  virtue ;  and  he  who  indeed  acts 
upon  it  is  the  noblest  of  all  heroes. 


52  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  weak  sinews  become  strong  by  their  conflict  with 
difficulties.  Hope  is  born  in  the  long  night  of  watching 
and  tears.  Faith  visits  us  in  defeat  and  disappointment, 
amid  the  consciousness  of  earthly  frailty  and  the  crum- 
bling tombstones  of  mortality. 


THE  best  and  the  bravest  man  is  the  man  who,  amid  all 
thronging  realities  of  life,  endeavors  to  conform  to  an 
ideal  rectitude.  Those  who  have  accomplished  great 
things,  who  have  stood  in  advance  of  the  age  and  dared 
to  rebuke  it,  and  who  have  overcome  the  world,  have 
lived  from  sanctions  that  are  above  the  world. 


PATRIOTISM  !  It  is  used  to  define  so  many  diversities, 
to  justify  so  many  wrongs,  to  compass  so  many  ends,  that 
its  life  is  killed  out ;  it  becomes  a  dead  word  in  the  vocab- 
ulary, —  a  blank  counter,  to  be  moved  to  any  part  of  the 
game ;  and  that  flag  which,  streaming  from  the  mast-head 
of  our  ship  of  state,  striped  with  martyr-blood,  and  glis- 
tening with  the  stars  of  lofty  promise,  should  always  indi- 
cate our  world-wide  mission,  and  the  glorious  destinies 
that  we  carry  forward,  is  bandied  about  in  every  selfish 
skirmish,  and  held  up  as  the  symbol  of  every  political 
privateer. 


LIVING    WORDS.  53 

I  ASK,  if  that  system  which  should  come  into  the  world, 
having  for  one  of  its  objects  the  elevation  of  the  soul  to 
such  a  degree  of  goodness  and  moral  strength  as  to  de- 
stroy the  will  and  the  disposition  to  sin,  —  I  ask,  if  that 
system  is  not  worthy  of  being  heralded  by  angels,  —  of 
being  announced  in  a  chorus  of  glory  to  God  in  the  high- 
est —  of  peace  and  good-will  to  men  ?  Yes,  glory  to  God 
in  the  highest !  Glory  to  him  in  the  great  design,  and 
the  triumphant  means  of  accomplishing  such  a  work! 
Glory  to  him  that  must  result  from  the  consummation  of 
manhood  purified  from  its  sins,  elevated  above  its  sensual- 
ity, living  the  true  and  divine  life  !  And  on  earth,  peace 
to  men  !  Peace  after  the  stormy  warfare  of  passion  and 
guilt.  Peace  by  the  old  shrines  of  martyrdom,  and  on 
the  fields  of  ancient  battle.  Peace  in  the  haunts  of  secret 
crime,  and  the  homes  of  shameless  transgression.  Peace 
where  clanked  the  prisoner's  chain,  and  where  groaned  the 
doomsman's  axe.  Peace  where  rose  the  sobs  of  injured 
innocence,  and  the  pleadings  of  trampled,  bleeding  human- 
ity. Peace  in  the  individual  soul,  where  all  is  in  har- 
mony with  God,  and  where  the  end  of  human  laws  and 
outward  institutions  is  not  destroyed,  but  fulfilled,  —  ful- 
filled in  the  highest  and  the  deepest  sense. 


CHRISTIANITY  is  a  life,  and  every  devout  and  loving 
heart  has  felt  it,  no  matter  what  its  name  or  sect. 

5* 


54  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  plant  that  shall  blossom  unto  an  immortal  flower- 
ing must  assimilate  to  itself  elements  that  have  been  -win- 
nowed in  the  storms  and  changes  of  the  past. 


IT  is  too  late  for  reformers  to  sneer  at  Christianity ;  it 
is  foolishness  for  them  to  reject  it.  In  it  are  enshrined 
our  faith  in  human  progress,  —  our  confidence  in  reform. 
It  is  indissolubly  connected  with  all  that  is  hopeful,  spirit- 
ual, capable  in  man.  The  past  bears  witness  to  it,  in  the 
blood  of  its  martyrs  and  the  ashes  of  its  saints  and  heroes ; 
the  present  is  hopeful  because  of  it ;  the  future  shall  ac- 
knowledge its  omnipotence. 


THE  safety  and  happiness  of  society  flow  out  from  the 
recesses  of  private  principle. 


IT  wants  not  merely  microscopic  but  telescopic  power 
to  know  humanity  in  its  essence ;  a  power  to  discern  its 
grandeur  as  well  as  its  littleness,  the  infinity  of  its  rela- 
tions as  well  as  the  meanness  of  its  pursuits.  The  human 
soul  is  a  great  deep.  We  must  take  into  view  the  nebu- 
lous possibilities  that  are  brooding  and  waiting  there,  and 
notice  the  buds  and  films  of  light  that  reveal  themselves 
even  in  the  darkest  spaces. 


LIVING    WORDS.  55 

IN  the  most  shallow  nature  there  clings  some  shred  of 
dignity  which  redeems  it  from  utter  contempt.  And  it  is 
a  mean  performance,  or  else  it  is  purblind  sight,  that  se- 
lects the  odious  features,  and  parades  them  as  the  sum- 
total  of  human  nature. 


THE  highest  genius  never  flowers  in  satire,  but  culmi- 
nates in  sympathy  with  that  which  is  best  in  human 
nature,  and  appeals  to  it. 


No  man  knows  the  genuineness  of  his  convictions  until 
he  has  sacrificed  something  for  them. 


THOSE  two  mites  of  the  poor  widow !  They  were  heavy 
with  her  labor,  and  her  prayers,  and  her  self-denial ;  and 
so,  as  they  fell  into  the  treasury,  they  rung  in  the  ear  of 
Heaven,  and  Jesus  valued  them. 


No  language  can  express  the  power,  and  beauty,  and 

heroism,  and  majesty  of  a  mother's  love It  shrinks 

not  where  man  cowers,  and  grows  stronger  where  man 
faints,  and  over  the  wastes  of  worldly  fortune  sends  the 
radiance  of  its  quenchless  fidelity  like  a  star  hi  heaven. 


. 

66  LIVING    WORDS. 

EVERY  man  -who  regards  position  more  than  principle 
—  the  garment  more  than  the  heart  —  computes  life  by 
the  dross,  and  rates  the  substance  by  the  shell. 

THE  great  fact  to  be  considered  is  not  our  lot  in  life, 
but  we  who  are  in  that  lot,  and  what  we  make  out  of  it. 


BECAUSE  of  existing  evils,  to  break  the  strong  bands 
of  the  marriage  relation,  and  set  «the  family  group  adrift 
in  some  vague  conceit  of  social  freedom,  or  some  nonsense 
of  "  spiritual  affinities,"  would  be  like  knocking  a  ship  in 
pieces  because  some  of  the  passengers  are  sea-sick.  This 
organism  of  the  family  is  a  ship  that  has  carried  human 
civilization  over  the  waves  of  ages,  —  an  ark  that  has  pre- 
served the  germs  of  the  social  state  in  many  a  deluge. 
Sunder  the  ties  that  hold  it  together,  and  who  can  esti- 
mate the  ruin,  or  from  the  shattered  fragments  recon- 
struct society  ? 

MAN  in  selfish  solitude  is  like  a  telescope  closed  up. 
The  qualities  of  his  humanity  may  exist,  but  they  are 
unknown. 


DEATH  is  a  great  revealer  of  what  is  in  a  man.  and  in 
its  solemn  shadow  appear  the  naked  lineaments  of  the  soul. 


LIVING    WORDS.  57 

THOSE  who  draw  around  them  the  upholstery  of  an 
artificial  world  —  a  world  of  frippery  and  gas-light  — 
shut  out  the  true  world  of  thought  and  life ;  —  shut  out 
the  true  world  of  nature,  where  flowers  bloom  and  sun- 
beams fall,  and  over  which  Orion  sparkles  and  the  Pleiades 

lead  their  flashing  train The  representative  of  this 

variety  in  its  weaker  aspect  is  a  slick  and  harmless  being, 
—  a  kind  of  whiskered  essence,  or  organized  perfume,  — 
level  to  the  minutest  propriety  of  the  drawing-room  and 
the  opera;  his  thoughts  oppressed  with  ten  thousand 
points  of  ceremony,  or  pondering  grave  problems  as  to  the 
color  of  a  glove  or  the  shape  of  a  boot. 


THE  philanthropist's  hope  may  not  appear  in  the  com- 
ing future ;  yet  the  inspiration  of  that  hope  may  make  him 
a  hero,  and  perhaps  a  martyr. 


GOD'S  beneficence  streams  out  from  the  morning  sun, 
and  his  love  looks  down  upon  us  from  the  starry  eyes  of 
midnight.  It  is  his  solicitude  that  wraps  us  in  the  air, 
and  the  pressure  of  his  hand,  so  to  speak,  that  keeps  our 
pulses  beating.  Q !  it  is  a  great  thing  to  realize  that  the 
Divine  Power  is  always  working ;  that  nature,  in  every 
valve  and  every  artery,  is  full  of  the  presence  of  God. 


LIVING    WORDS. 


THE  sublimities  of  God's  glory  beam  upon  us  in  his 
care  for  the  little,  as  well  as  in  his  adjustments  of  the 
great ;  in  the  comfort  which  surrounds  the  little  wood- 
bird,  and  blesses  the  denizen  of  a  single  leaf,  as  well  as  in 
the  happiness  that  streams  through  the  hierarchies  of  being 
that  cluster  and  swarm  in  yon  forests  of  the  firmament ; 
in  the  skill  displayed  in  the  spider's  eye,  —  in  the  beauty 
that  quivers  upon  the  butterfly's  wing,  —  as  in  the  splen- 
dors that  emboss  the  chariot-wheels  of  night,  or  glitter  in 
the  sandals  of  the  morning. 


THE  wild  bird  that  flies  so  lone  and  far  has  somewhere 
its  nest  and  brood  :  A  little  fluttering  heart  of  love  im- 
pels its  wings,  and  points  its  course.  There  is  nothing  so 
solitary  as  a  solitary  man. 


A  VAIN  man  is  not  one  with  a  dignified  consciousness  of 
his  own  personality,  but  rather  one  with  a  nervous  solici- 
tude about  himself,  —  a  fear  that  he  shall  not  be  noticed 
enough ;  with  a  half-suspicion  that  he  may  be  a  sham,  a 
counterfeit,  and,  therefore,  an  extra  endeavor  that  his 
chink  and  jingle  shall  be  heard  in  the  world. 


BUT  little  good  is  derived  from  the  company  of  a  highly 
intellectual  wolf  or  a  moral  bear. 


LIVING     WORDS.  59 

BREAK  up  the  institution  of  the  family,  deny  the  in- 
violability of  its  relations,  and  in  a  little  while  there  would 
not  be  any  humanity. 


THE  physical  law  is  also  God's  law,  —  the  expression  of 
his  intention,  the  enactment  of  his  will.  It  has  had  no  set 
place  of  proclamation,  no  vocal  utterance.  But  its  ad- 
ministration is  abroad  on  the  pure  air  of  heaven,  and  its 
decrees  are  in  the  light.  It  is  not  engraved  on  tables  of 
stone,  but  its  sanctions  are  in  every  part  of  your  wonder- 
ful, throbbing  organism :  in  the  currents  of  the  blood,  the 
hand-writing  of  the  nerves,  and  the  tablets  of  the  lungs. 
While  you  obey  it  its  mystery  works  on,  with  serene  un- 
consciousness, affording  that  pleasure  which  there  is  in 
bare  existence  itself;  in  the  play  of  muscle  and  the  equal 
pulse  of  health ;  in  full,  deep  breathing,  and  sweet  sleep, 
and  the  exhilaration  of  the  sunshine  and  the  air.  But 
violate  it,  and  the  relentless  consequences  will  tell  you 
how  sacred  and  how  divine  it  is. 


IF  we  would  induce  others  to  act  virtuously,  it  will 
prove  more  effectual  to  show  them  their  capacities  than 

\. 

to  expose  their  weakness ;  —  to  attract  them  by  a  fairer 
ideal  than  to  terrify  them  by  pictures  of  misery  and 
shame. 


60  LIVING    WORDS. 

EVENTS,  things,  -world-movements,  individual  experi- 
ences, contemplated  from  a  partial  point  of  view,  may 
seem  chaotic,  purposeless,  disconnected,  —  like  the  foam- 
flakes,  pitching,  -whirling,  turned  into  mist,  bounding  into 
•white  annihilation,  at  Niagara.  But  every  atom  of  that 
dishevelled  water  is  held  in  the  curve  of  nature,  and  de- 
scends by  law,  and  combines  and  sweeps  onward  to  the 
broad  lake.  So  with  human  events.  They  are  governed ; 
they  accomplish  a  majestic  course ;  and  over  their  maddest 
plunging,  their  most  terrible  anarchy,  there  arches  the 
superintending  Providence  —  a  bow  in  the  cloud. 


DEATH  makes  a  beautiful  appeal  to  charity.  When  we 
look  upon  the  dead  form  so  composed  and  still,  the  kind- 
ness and  the  love  that  are  in  us  all  come  forth. 


WHATEVER  may  be  our  condition  in  life,  it  is  better  to 
lay  hold  of  its  advantages  than  to  count  its  evils. 


ALTHOUGH  the  notions  of  many  are  so  contrary  to  ours, 
we  discover  that  in  common  life  they  are  worthy  people, 
and  that  their  theories  do  not  make  such  shocking  havoc 
as  we  had  inferred. 


LIVING    WORDS.  61 

HE  is  a  true  man  who  realizes  the  dignity  of  his  na- 
ture ;  who  is  loyal  to  his  best  convictions ;  who  controls 
his  passions  and  appetites ;  who  is  guided  by  his  reason  ; 
and  who  blends  a  noble  mastery  of  himself  with  a  filial 
dependence  upon  God,  and  who  is  greater  than  anything 
that  he  has  or  does. 


To  be  a  man  in  the  best  sense  of  the  term  is  a  loftier 
object  of  ambition  than  anything  that  he  may  acquire  as 
a  man. 


IT  is  an  error  to  suppose  that  religion  is  unfavorable  to 
vigor  and  fulness  of  nature. 


COURAGE  is  always  greatest  when  blended  with  meek- 
ness ;  intellectual  ability  is  most  admirable  "when  it 
sparkles  in  the  setting  of  a  modest  self-distrust;  and 
never  does  the  human  soul  appear  so  strong  as  when  it 
foregoes  revenge  and  dares  to  forgive  an  injury. 


THERE  can  be  no  true  manliness  without  gentleness, 
mercy,  love.  There  is  only  superficial  strength  in  him 
who  can  do  but  not  endure. 

6 


62  LIVING    WORDS. 

OF  all  strength  of  character,  of  all  spiritual  force, 
Christianity  is  the  main  spring.  A  glance  at  facts  is 
enough  to  show  this.  For  where  are  human  energies  the 
most  active  and  the  best  developed  ?  Where  has  science 
achieved  its  grandest  victories  ?  Where  have  invention, 
art,  and  civilization  unfolded  their  richest  results?  In 
Christian  lands,  and  under  Christian  influences. 


A  GENUINE  loyalty  to  truth,  tha^dares  to  speak  it  and 
to  live  it,  is  one  of  the  grandest  features  of  manhood. 


IN  the  history  of  man  it  has  been  very  generally  the 
case  that  when  evils  have  grown  insufferable  they  have 
touched  the  point  of  cure. 


THIS  is  the  essential  evil  of  vice :  it  debases  a  man. 


THE  seeds  of  good  resolve,  progress,  virtue,  fly  to 
young  men  winged  with  fresh  hopes.  Often  the  only 
remedy  that  we  can  descry  for  present  evils  is  the  substi- 
tution of  another  stock  of  men.  In  the  coming  of  a  new 
generation  there  always  opens  a  better  prospect  for  the 
world. 


LIVING    WORDS.  63 

WE  are  astonished  at  the  sight  of  nerveless  infamy  and 
decrepit  lust.  It  makes  us  sick  at  heart  to  see  the  limbs 
that  stoop  so  near  the  earth  shaking  with  the  tremor  of  in- 
dulgence, and  the  eyes  whose  feeble  vision  should  be  lifted 
heavenward  blinded  with  the  filthy  rheum  of  debauch. 
It  appals  us  that  one  who  for  threescore  years  and  ten  has 
experienced  the  goodness  of  his  Maker  should  use  the  ac- 
cents of  his  faltering  voice  to  defile  that  name  with  blas- 
phemy ;  that  he  who  knows  how  much  purity  there  is, 
even  yet,  in  life,  should  to  the  very  last  maintain  such  an 
example  to  infect  its  sanctities ;  and  that,  while  it  should 
seem  most  men  would  grow  solemn  at  least  when  those 
great  shadows  are  thickening  upon  their  heads,  he  should 
mock  them  with  his  toothless  laughter,  and,  gathering 
curses  about  him  like  a  garment,  stagger  headlong  into  the 
gates  of  death. 

PHYSICALLY,  man  is  but  an  atom  in  space,  and  a  puls- 
ation in  time.  Spiritually,  the  entire  outward  universe 
receives  significance  from  him,  and  the  scope  of  his  exist- 
ence stretches  beyond  the  stars. 


A  THOUSAND  wheels  of  labor  are  turned  by  dear  affec- 
tions, and  kept  in  motion  by  self-sacrificing  endurance; 
and  the  crowds  that  pour  forth  in  the  morning  and  return 
at  night  are  daily  processions  of  love  and  duty. 


64  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  truly  beautiful  is  useful.  And  no  man  needs 
this  kind  of  help  so  much  as  he  who  ignores  it;  whose  con- 
ception of  utility  is  limited  to  the  bounds  of  a  coarse,  ma- 
terial interest,  and  the  service  of  the  senses.  Why,  what 
does  he  think  of  this  vast  palace  of  industry  all  around 
him,  with  enamelled  floor  and  its  star-sprinkled  dome, 
where  the  Divine  Intelligence,  working  for  illimitable 
ages,  has  mingled  the  materials  of  use  with  the  expression 
of  beauty  ?  "What  does  he  make  of  the  contributions  which 
summer  brings  to  this  great  exhibition, — of  the  upholstery 
of  the  sunset  and  the  tent  of  midnight  ?  Does  he  not  won- 
der that  the  leaves  should  put  on  such  pomp  for  the  dying 
year,  and  that  such  useless  things  as  flowers  should  line 
the  traveller's  dusty  way? 


You  have  opportunities  for  serving  God  that  all  the 
past  had  not. 

TRUTH  and  righteousness  do  not  break  forth  in  sharp 
and  sudden  shocks.  Secretly  they  work  down  in  the 
deep  heart  of  things,  leavening  the  lump.  Gradually  they 
proceed,  like  the  issues  of  the  morning,  in  which  we  de- 
tect no  sudden  crisis,  —  in  which  we  hardly  observe  the 
transition,  —  until,  bye-and-bye,  in  place  of  the  shadows 
and  the  cold,  gray  mist,  lo !  a  clear,  transfiguring  splendor 
rests  on  the  mountains  and  the  sea. 


LIVING    WORDS.  65 

THE  strict  conservative  says  that  truth  is  in  danger. 
It  is  the  idlest  fear  in  the  world.  It  plainly  indicates  no 
intimacy  with  the  truth.  He  who  has  communed  with 
great  principles  knows  that  they  are  everlasting,  and  that 
nothing  can  shake  them  from  their  orbits.  He  is  willing 
to  trust  truth  in  every  encounter,  knowing  it  to  be  eter- 
nal and  omnipotent. 


THE  man  who  strives  to  reach  the  core  of  things,  who 
anxiously  wrestles  with  doubt,  and  clasps  his  temporary 
conviction  though  it  makes  his  very  heart  bleed,  and  yet 
who  beats  about  in  blinding  mist,  and  cannot  see,  may  be 
nearer  the  kingdom  of  heaven  than  he  who  mechanically 
wears  the  yoke  of  tradition,  who  worships  in  listless  con- 
formity, but  who  cares  nothing  for  the  truth  in  itself,  and 
in  whose  soul  that  truth  lies  dead. 


OF  all  sensualists  the  worst  is  that  moral  sepulchre 
within  whose  gilded  exterior  the  life  of  principle  has  crum- 
bled darkly  away,  —  the  man  whose  tiger  propensities  are 
disguised  with  a  velvet  tread  and  a  silver  tongue,  — 
whose  real  nature,  into  which  has  entered  the  curse  of 
withered  innocence  and  broken  hearts,  is  hidden  by  the 
glitter  of  accomplishments,  and  each  accomplishment  a 
treacherous  lie. 


C6  LIVING    WORDS. 

IF  angels  stoop  from  visions  of  more  than  earthly  beauty 
to  spells  of  less  than  earthly  worth,  they  are  but  fallen 
angels,  mingling  divine  utterances  with  the  babblings  of 
madness,  and  the  madness  is  not  the  divineness. 


A  LIFE  of  mere  pleasure !  A  little  while,  in  the 
spring-time  of  the  senses,  in  the  sunshine  of  prosperity, 
in  the  jubilee  of  health,  it  may  seem  well  enough.  But 
how  insufficient,  how  mean,  how  terrible  when  age  comes, 
and  sorrow,  and  death  !  A  life  of  pleasure  !  What  does 
it  look  like  when  these  great  changes  beat  against  it,  — 
when  the  realities  of  eternity  stream  in?  It  looks  like 
the  fragments  of  a  feast,  when  the  sun  shines  upon  the 
withered  garlands,  and  the  tinsel,  and  the  overturned 
tables,  and  the  dead  lees  of  wine. 


THE  minister  should  preach  as  if  he  felt  that  although 
the  congregation  own  the  church,  and  have  bought  the 
pews,  they  have  not  bought  him.  His  soul  is  worth  no 
more  than  any  other  man's,  but  it  is  all  he  has,  and  he 
cannot  be  expected  to  sell  it  for  a  salary.  The  terms  are 
by  no  means  equal.  If  a  parishioner  does  ^not  like  the 
preaching  he  can  go  elsewhere  and  get  another  pew,  but 
the  preacher  cannot  get  another  soul. 


LIVING    WORDS.  67 

EARTH  has  scarcely  an  acre  that  does  not  remind  us  of 
actions  that  have  long  preceded  our  own,  and  its  cluster- 
ing tomb-stones  loom  up  like  reefs  of  the  eternal  shore,  to 
show  us  where  so  many  human  barks  have  struck  and 
gone  down. 

WHAT  is  prayer  without  love  but  the  mockwy  of  lofty 
compliment,  or  the  awe  and  agony  of  servile  fear  ?  Love 
is  the  very  life  of  the  best  things,  and  without  it  they  are 
mere  bodies,  dead  and  empty. 


THE  city  reveals  the  moral  ends  of  being,  and  sets  the 
awful  problem  of  life.  The  country  soothes  us,  refreshes 
us,  lifts  us  up  with  religious  suggestion. 


AN  ague-fit  in  the  Bank  of  England  or  in  Wall-street 
sets  the  whole  world  a  shaking ;  and  if  you  would  discover 
the  most  sensitive  and  powerful  interest  of  the  day  con- 
sult the  barometer  of  the  stocks. 


0,  HOW  those  men  are  to  be  valued  who,  in  the  spirit 
with  which  the  widow  gave  up  her  two  mites,  have  given 
up  themselves !  How  their  names  sparkto !  How  rich 
their  very  ashes  are  !  How  they  will  count  up  in  heaven ! 


68  LIVING    WORDS. 

IT  is  hard  work  to  read  the  moral  law  straight  through 
the  double  lens  of  twelve  per  cent  interest ;  and  a  man 
will  find  some  way  to  hitch  his  conscience  to  the  train  of 
a  profitable  transaction,  and  keep  it  running  in  the  grooves 
of  a  thriving  business. 


THERE  are  many  men,  I  fear,  who  make  Sunday 
answer  the  purpose  of  a  dull  business  spell  or  a  rainy 
day.  They  turn  over  the  leaves  of  the  ledger  instead  of 
the  Bible ;  mourn  not  their  sins,  but  their  bad  debts ; 
and  are  so  busy  writing  their  own  letters  that  they  have 
no  time  to  read  the  epistles  of  Paul. 


EACH  man  occupies  an  original  position.  Every  great 
fact  comes  straight  to  him.  Every  appeal  of  duty  must 
run  through  the  alembic  of  his  reason,  his  conscience,  and 
his  will.  The  cope  of  heaven  bursts  above  him ;  the  un- 
fathomed  depths  open  beneath  him ;  the  mysteries  of  God 
and  immortality  come  streaming  in,  with  their  awful 
splendors ;  and  truths  that  have  confounded  the  loftiest 

intellects  —  truths  that  in  all  ages  have  roused  up  the 

0  • 

soul  from  its  foundations,  and  baptized  it  with  reverence, 
and  kindled  it  with  love  —  environ  him  as  intensely  as  if 
he  were  the  first-born  of  men  set  face  to  face  with  fresh 
and  unresolved  problems. 


i 

LIVING    WORDS.  69 

IT  is  a  shameful  inconsistency  that  the  law  should  busy 
itself  only  with  consequences,  and  neglect  and  even  foster 
causes.  It  leaves  uncared  for  the  hot-beds  of  iniquity, 
and  shuts  up  the  vagrant  and  the  thief.  With  one  hand 
it  licenses  a  dram-shop,  and  with  the  other  builds  a 
gallows. 


THIS  is  the  most  fearful  characteristic  of  vice :  its  irre- 
sistible fascination ;  —  the  ease  with  which  it  sweeps  away 
resolution,  and  wins  a  man  to  forget  his  momentary  out- 
look, his  throb  of  penitence,  in  the  embrace  of  indulgence. 


HAPPY  is  the  land  whose  granite  heart  is  warmed  by 
sacred  hearth-fires,  and  in  whose  homes  are  nourished 
venerable  associations  and  local  attachments.  These  in- 
tense sympathies  are  not  less  but  more  favorable  to 
broader  claims.  These  enrich  the  blood,  and  toughen 
the  fibres  of  a  noble  patriotism.  These  impart  that  vital- 
ity which  withstands  oppression  and  clings  to  the  right. 
These  send  some  element  of  purity  and  honor  into  a  na- 
tion's life,  lend  it  that  identity  of  soul  which  stirs  to  this 
common  suggestion  of  the  altar  and  the  home,  and,  hem- 
ming it  around  with  the  father's  ashes  and  the  children's 
hopes,  make  it  a  land  worth  living  and  worth  dying 
for. 


i 

70  LIVING    WORDS. 

HE  is  a  miserable  being  who  has  no  resources  of  enjoy- 
ment -within  himself,  but  depends  entirely  upon  foreign 
suggestion;  who,  in  fact,  must  run  away  from  himself, 
and  pitch  into  the  waves  of  superficial  excitement,  a  per- 
petual whirl  and  glitter  that  drowns  all  personality,  and 
sweeps  away  soul  and  sense. 


I  DOUBT  the  validity  of  any  amusement  that  is  thought 
proper  for  the  people  but  improper  for  the  minister. 


THE  universe  is  a  vast  system  of  exchange.  Every  ar- 
tery of  it  is  in  motion,  throbbing  with  reciprocity,  from 
the  planet  to  the  rotting  leaf.  The  vapor  climbs  the  sun- 
beam, and  comes  back  in  blessings  upon  the  exhausted 
herb.  The  exhalation  of  the  plant  is  wafted  to  the  ocean. 
And  so  goes  on  the  beautiful  commerce  of  nature.  And 
all  because  of  dissimilarity,  —  because  no  one  thing  is 
sufficient  in  itself,  but  calls  for  the  assistance  of  something 
else,  and  repays  by  a  contribution  in  turn. 


EVERYTHING  grows  from  the  centre  outward ;  and  so 
humanity  grows  from  moral  and  intellectual  inspira- 
tions. 


LIVING    WORDS.  71 

A  MARTYR'S  blood  may  become  not  only  "the  seed  of 
the  Church,"  but  of  far-reaching  revolutions;  and  the 
philosopher's  abstraction  beats  down  feudal  castles,  and 
melts  barriers  of  steel.  One  great  principle  will  tell 
more  upon  the  life  of  a  people  than  all  its  discoveries  and 
conquests. 


WHATEVER  touches  the  nerves  of  motive  —  whatever 
shifts  man's  moral  position  —  is  mightier  than  steam,  or 
caloric,  or  lightning. 


IN  the  great  sum  of  social  destiny,  England  is  not  that 
empire  whose  right  arm  encircles  the  northern  lakes,  and 
whose  left  stretches  far  down  into  the  Indian  Sea ;  but  an 
influence  which  is  vascular  with  the  genius  of  Bacon,  and 
Locke,  and  Shakspeare,  and  Milton. 


IT  is  a  proof  of  his  immortality  that  while  these  ma- 
terial elements  are  united  with  his  body,  and  hold  the  mort- 
gage of  his  dust,  they  are  obsequious  to  his  purposes,  and 
before  the  moral  and  intellectual  man  assume  an  attitude 
of  inferiority.  This  is  a  new  proof  of  his  immortality, 
that  flashes  out  in  the  wide  diffusion  of  science  at  the 
present  day,  that  man  appears  as  a  workman,  nature  but 
as  an  implement. 


72  LIVING    WORDS. 

ETHNOLOGY  may  break  the  concrete  surface  of.  human- 
ity into  the  mosaic  of  a  thousand  races ;  —  it  cannot  turn 
into  diverse  channels  that  common  under-current,  that 
deep  gulf-stream,  which  heaves  with  the  impulses  and  the 
yearnings  of  one  nature  and  one  blood.  Geology  may 
throw  open  its  rocky  catacombs,  stamped  with  the  hiero- 
glyphics of  incalculable  time; — it  cannot  divorce  the  con- 
scious soul  from  that  eternal  Love  which  is  the  same 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever.  Astronomy  may  appal  our 
fleshly  eyesight  with  its  sweep  of  boundless  space.  But 
only  more  impressive,  more  needed,  more  real  seems  that 
Bible  truth  uttered  long  ago :  "  Thou  hast  beset  me  be- 
hind and  before,  and  laid  thine  hand  upon  me."  As  we 
see  what  the  natural  world  is,  we  only  feel  more  vividly 
what  the  spiritual  truth  of  Jesus  means ;  and  the  clouds 
of  sense  that  to  some  may  have  seemed  for  the  time  to 
eclipse  it,  part  open  before  the  divine  lustre  that  streams 
from  the  love  of  the  Cross. 


THE  bud  withers,  but  no  kindred  bud  takes  its  wither- 
ing to  heart,  or  yearns  for  its  renewal.  But  the  bud  that 
drops  from  a  mother's  bosom,  overshadowed  by  the  petals 
of  her  yearning  love ;  —  tell  us  not  that  that  has  no  re- 
newal, —  no  blossoming  in  more  genial  air ;  for  then  you 
mock  a  deathless  instinct ;  then  you  would  balk  an  inward 
spring  that  flows  like  the  love  of  God  himself. 


LIVING    WORDS.  73 

THE  productions  of  the  press,  fast  as  steam  can  make 
and  carry  them,  go  abroad  through  all  the  land,  silent  as 
snow-flakes,  but  potent  as  thunder.  It  is  an  additional 
tongue  of  steam  and  lightning,  by  -which  a  man  speaks 
his  first  thought,  his  instant  argument  or  grievance,  to 
millions  in  a  day. 


NATURE  is  God  perpetually  working;  and  we  need 
only  look  around  us  to  see  and  to  feel  that  truth  of  a 
Providence  to  which  our  deepest  instincts  turn. 


SETTING  is  preliminary  to  brighter  rising ;  decay  is  a 
process  of  advancement ;  death  is  the  condition  of  higher 
and  more  fruitful  life. 


WHO  has  not  been  glad  to  plunge  his  individuality  into 
this  ocean  of  superintending  goodness  and  wisdom,  and 
feel,  through  the  struggle  and  fever  or  his  own  little  life, 
the  Infinite  Heart  beating  under  all  things  ? 


BE  not  so  solicitous  to  rebut  all  suspicion  of  "  green- 
ness "  as  to  come  out  in  vice  full  blossom.  Better  live 
green  and  die  green  than  to  be  thus  rotten  before  your 
prime. 

7 


74  LIVING    WORDS. 

WHEREVER  we  gaze,  wherever  we  explore,  we  behold 
the  features  of  creative  skill  steeped  in  the  smile  of  crea- 
tive love. 


IF  that,  philosophy  which  repudiates  whatever  is  not 
useful  had  its  way  it  would  daub  the  oracles  of  song  with 
plaster,  it  would  break  up  the  master-pieces  of  sculpture 
to  macadamize  roads,  and  send  the  poets  to  the  lunatic 
asylum. 

LET  us  make  a  proper  distinction  between  the  economy 
of  living  and  the  economy  of  life.  A  man  may  find  it 
necessary  to  scrimp  his  body,  but  it  does  not  follow  that 
therefore  he  should  starve  his  soul.  And  sometimes 
when,  as  he  thinks,  he  shrewdly  saves  a  dollar,  he  may 
be  doing  a  more-  extravagant  thing  than  the  profligate 
who  spends  one.  He  is  doing  an  extravagant  thing  if 
merely  for  the  sake  of  saving  his  dollar  he  bars  out  some 
opportunity  to  become  richer  or  better  in  his  intellect  or 
his  heart. 


WHEN  we  save  our  money  at  the  expense  of  our  souls, 
then  saving  money  is  not  economy ;  —  it  is  the  worst  kind 
of  wastefulness Let  us  enrich  our  souls  as  we  law- 
fully may  with  all  beauty,  with  all  truth  and  excellence ; 
for  this  is  the  real  economy  of  life. 


LIVING    WORDS.  76 

OLD  age  ought  to  be,  and  essentially  is  a  manifestation 
of  what  is  hidden  in  the  depths  of  a  man's  nature.  It 
might  be,  it  should  be,  not  an  exhibition  of  crackling 
impotence  and  gloomy  decay,  but  the  very  crown  and 
ripening  of  life,  —  the  symbol  of  maturity,  not  of  dissolu- 
tion. So  rich  in  its  resources,  so  bright  in  its  memories, 
so  calm  in  the  fulness  of  its  harmony,  so  lifted  up  by  a 
grand  faith,  as  to  over-top  all  melancholy  associations.  It 
is  so  in  the  natural  world In  this  luscious  au- 
tumn, these  days  of  marvellous  beauty,  the  earth  appears 
like  a  pallette  set  with  gorgeous  colors,  and  enriched  with 

a  haze  of  sifted  gold It  seems  as  though  from 

every  crypt  and  secret  vein  affluent  nature  had  summoned 
all  her  riches  for  one  full,  glorious  manifestation ;  and  all 
her  hidden  beauty  swims  to  the  surface.  The  buried 
seed,  the  dew  that  came  by  night,  the  unregarded  sweat 
of  human  labor,  bursts  out  in  purple  grapes  and  yellow 
corn.  The  secret  juices  of  plant  and  tree  tingle  in  quiv- 
ering gold  and  blush  in  crimson.  And  every  lowly  and 
lovely  thing  that  came  and  perished  long  ago  has,  as  it 
were,  left  its  legacy,  and  is  represented  in  this  congress 
of  yearly  glories.  The  latter  spring  has  bequeathed  the 
color  of  its  sky,  the  early  summer  the  softness  of  its 
breath,  and  every  little  flower  its  peculiar  tint,  to  be 
woven  in  this  mantle  of  serial  gauze,  and  to  suffuse  the 
woods  with  this  unconsurning  and  prismatic  flame.  In 
the  latest  hours  oMhe  year  come  out  the  full  glory  and 


76  LIVING    WORDS. 

richness  of  the  year.  Why  should  it  not  be  so  with  the 
latest  hours  of  human  life?  Why  should  these  bear 
merely  a  record  of  waste,  and  feebleness,  and  unfulfilled 
opportunities?  Why  only  dark  with  regrets  and  fore- 
bodings ?  Why  only  wear  the  look  of  a  ruin,  with  its 
broken  casements  and  shattered  walls  ?  .  .  .  .  Surely  a 
genuine  old  age,  a  Christian  completion  of  existence,  will 
wear  a  kind  of  October  glory,  even  when  the  body  is 
broken  and  the  flesh  is  weak.  It  will  correspond  with 
autumn  not  only  as  the  last  but  as  the  richest  of  the 
cycle.  Then,  in  clear  points  of  mental  flame,  in  glories 
of  faith,  in  the  beauty  of  love,  every  tint  of  the  soul, 
every  gentle  and  holy  affection,  all  the  juices  of  secret 
devotion,  every  process  of  silent,  inner,  faithful  work,  will 
come  out  to  complete  and  adorn  the  life  of  a  man,  and  the 
vestibule  of  death  will  be  a  gate- way  of  coronation. 


THE  best  men  are  not  those  who  have  waited  for 
chances,  but  taken  them,  —  besieged  the  chance,  con- 
quered the  chance,  and  made  the  chance  their  servitor. 


IT  .is  not  splendors,  principalities  and  powers,  that  mark 
the  grades  of  being,  and  determine  the  footprints  of  prog- 
ress. It  is  the  mind,  the  soul  of  man. 


LIVING    WORDS.  77 

SEE  how  things  in  the  world  of  nature  live  up  to  their 
best,  and  in  their  sphere  fulfil  a  perfect  work.  Now,  as  at 
the  first,  it  may  be  said  of  these  that  they  are  "good." 
But  how  shall  we  gain  such  a  benediction  ?  Only  as  we, 
too,  live  up  to  our  best,  —  as  we  come  into  conscious  har- 
mony, not  only  with  nature,  but  with  the  God  of  Nature, 
the  God  of  Life. 


HE  is  best  qualified  to  be  and  to  act  who  apprehends  this 
state  as  an  integral  part  of  his  moral  and  perpetual  exist- 
ence, and  who  feels  that  each  day,  each  hour,  is  precious 
in  itself  as  belonging  to  the  vast  sweep  of  eternity. 


How  often  a  new  affection  makes  a  new  man.  The 
sordid,  cowering  soul  turns  heroic.  The  frivolous  girl 
becomes  the  steadfast  martyr  of  patience  and  ministration, 
transfigured  by  deathless  love.  The  career  of  bounding 
impulses  turns  into  an  anthem  of  sacred  deeds. 


WHAT  spiritual  benefit  in  lopping  away  one  or  two  bad 
habits,  while  the  original  virus  remains  in  the  constitution  ? 
One  may  lop  away  all  bad  habits,  and  yet,  having  no 
positive  spiritual  life,  he  is  only  like  an  old  stump  with 
the  branches  broken  off. 


78  LIVING    WORDS. 

'WE  think  too  hardly,  my  friends,  of  positive  pain. 
There  is  hope  in  that ;  there  is  mercy  in  that ;  but  in 
loss,  privation,  deadness  of  faculty,  —  there 's  retribution. 
There 's  retribution ;  not  in  what  is  suffered  by  the  man, 
but  in  what  is  wasted  of  the  man. 


PRINCIPLES  of  righteousness  that  are  commended  from 
lip  to  lip  are  for  us  worth  nothing  until  they  are  coined 
in  our  own  hearts,  stamped  with  the  image  and  super- 
scription of  our  own  personality,  and  poured  into  the 
world  by  our  own  positive  endeavor. 


THERE  is  a  substantial  ground  of  rest  for  us  when  we 
actually  feel  that  God  knows  our  hearts  clear  through, 
and  do  not  try  to  hide  ourselves,  or  disguise  anything 
that  is  within  us  from  his  eye,  but  in  simple  confession  of 
our  sinfulness  rely  upon  his  mercy  and  his  help. 


How  much  in  this  world  is  charged  to  chance  or  for- 
tune, or  veiled  under  a  more  devout  name,  and  accorded 
to  Providence;  while,  when  we  come  to  look  honestly 
into  afiairs,  we  find  it  to  be  a  debt  of  our  own  accumula- 
tion, and  one  which  we  must  inevitably  pay. 


LIVING    WORDS.  79 

THE  faculty  by  which  we  convince  ourselves  of  any 
veracity  in  the  reports  of  our  senses  is  an  inward  faculty. 
And  if  we  rely  upon  this  in  its  report  of  that  which  comes 
through  the  senses,  shall  we  not  rely  upon  it  when  it  re- 
ports that  which  comes  more  immediately  to  itself?  And 
if  by  the  decisions  of  the  mind  we  accept  the  facts  of  an 
external  world,  shall  we  not  by  its  decisions  also  accept 
the  existence  of  spiritual  realities  ?  If  the  reports  of  this 
inward  witness  are  not  veracious,  what  reports  are  vera- 
cious ?  If  man  does  not  know  the  lines  of  eternal  recti- 
tude, if  he  sees  no  real  distinction  between  right  and 
wrong  by  the  help  of  conscience,  then  what  does  he  know 
or  perceive  ?  If  the  soul  turned  towards  the  Infinite,  in 
its  quivering  awe,  in  its  joyful  dependence,  does  not  dis- 
cern God,  what  power  in  all  our  complex  being  have  we, 
and  what  objects  are  real  ? 


IT  is  God's  work  we  do  whenever  we  perform  the  right 
thing  let  what  will  oppose  itself;  and  who  can  limit  the 
uses  which  God  thus  makes  of  his  instruments  ?  He  does 
not  require  great  things  to  effect  his  great  ends ;  —  not 
always  a  battle  or  a  treaty,  a  mission  or  a  martyrdom. 
Your  little  act  of  faith  and  fortitude ;  —  he  may  take  it 
up  and  weave  it  conspicuously  among  the  splendors  of  his 
unfolding  plan. 


80  LIVING    WORDS. 

WHAT  a  blessing  man  acknowledges  in  sleep,  whose 
soft  oblivion  makes  an  island  of  every  day,  and  breaks 
the  hold  of  continuous  care ;  that  cools  the  hot  brain,  and 
bathes  the  weary  eye-lids,  and  lets  the  buffeted  and 
foundering  heart  cast  anchor  every  night  in  some  harbor 
of  happy  dreams.  He  feels  the  beneficence  of  that  law 
which  makes  even  misery  halt,  and  besieging  fortune 
strike  its  tents,  and  in  the  great  democracy  of  nature 
levels  the  children  of  men  in  common  helplessness  and 
common  need ;  finding  no  conditions  so  wretched,  no  spot 
so  bleak  that  even  the  most  desperate  cannot  recline  nearer 
to  the  bosom  of  the  common  mother,  and  forget  for  a  little 
while  their  sorrow  and  their  shame. 
I 

CHRIST'S  revelation  of  the  All-encompassing  Provi- 
dence over-arches  us  at  times  like  the  clear  night-sky, 
when  one  halts  on  his  march  through  the  desert,  breath- 
ing a  blessed  coolness  over  our  parched  and  weary 
nature,  and  amidst  the  lonely  waste,  the  drifting  sand, 
and  the  fluttering  tents,  looking  down  upon  us  with  a 
great  and  tender  assurance  of  permanence  and  peace. 


THROUGH  every  rift  of  discovery  some  seeming  anomaly 
drops  out  of  the  darkness,  and  falls  as  a  golden  link  in  the 
great  chain  of  order. 


LIVING    WORDS.  81 

ALWAYS  the  idea  of  unbroken  quiet  broods  around  the 
grave.  It  is  a  port  where  the  storms  of  life  never  beat, 
and  the  forms  that  have  been  tossed  on  its  chafing  waves 
lie  quiet  forevermore.  There  the  child  nestles  as  peace- 
fully as  ever  it  lay  in  its  mother's  arms,  and  the  work- 
man's hands  lie  still  by  his  side,  and  the  thinker's  brain 
is  pillowed  in  silent  mystery,  and  the  poor  girl's  broken 
heart  is  steeped  in  a  balm  that  extracts  its  secret  woe,  and 
is  in  the  keeping  of  a  charity  that  covers  all  blame. 


TO-MORROW  may  never  come  to  us.  We  do  not  live 
in  to-morrow.  We  cannot  find  it  in  any  of  our  title- 
deeds.  The  man  who  owns  whole  blocks  of  real  estate, 
and  great  ships  on  the  sea,  does  not  own  a  single  minute 
of  to-morrow.  To-morrow  !  It  is  a  mysterious  possibility, 
not  yet  born.  It  lies  under  the  seal  of  midnight,  —  be- 
hind the  veil  of  glittering  constellations. 


THE  devil  has  been  painted  swarthy,  cloven-footed, 
horned,  and  hideous.  Do  we  expect  to  see  him  in  that 
shape?  0,  surely  it  would  bo  better  for  us,  if  he  did 
come  in  that  shape  !  The  trouble  is  the  devil  never  does 
come  in  that  shape.  He  comes  by  chance,  with  unregis- 
tered signals,  and  in  all  sorts  of  counterfeit  present- 
ments. 


82  LIVING     WORDS. 

WHO  shall  say  that  prayer  has  no  ground  of  reason 
because  science  cannot  find  any  avenue  for  it?  Who 
shall  forbid  this  instinct  that  cleaves  every  cloud  strait 
up  to  God,  because  visibly  he  does  not  reach  down  his 
hand? 


THE  dreaded  morrow,  that  has  cast  its  gloom  over  so 
many  yesterdays,  and  prevented  our  needed  sleep ;  how 
often  have  we  found  its  anticipated  trials  soften  and 
dwindle,  as  we  passed  under  their  shadow !  As  we 
entered  into  the  cloud  some  heavenly  voice  has  saluted 
us,  inspiring  us  with  courage  and  with  hope;  some  un- 
expected help  has  encountered  us;  we  have  seen  some- 
thing to  mitigate  our  grief;  some  clue  has  led  us  through 
the  perplexity,  and  the  foreboding  ill  has  broken  and 
vanished  as  we  drew  near.  Or,  if  the  full  tide  of  antici- 
pated trouble  has  rolled  over  us,  we  have  been  enabled  to 
bear  it,  and  we  are  now  enriched  in  life  with  so  much 
additional  experience. 


WHAT  is  it  that  so  far  has  failed  ?  Surely  not  your 
conviction  that  this  is  God's  right,  God's  truth,  which 
you  have  been  striving  to  maintain.  And  for  any  cause 
there  can  be  no  absolutely  fatal  symptom,  except  a  dem- 
onstration of  its  falsity. 


LIVING    WORDS.  83 

REVOLUTION  does  not  insure  progress.  You  may  over- 
turn thrones,  but  what  proof  that  anything  better  will 
grow  upon  the  soil  ?  The  deepest  woes  of  humanity  are 
not  cured  by  universal  fraternity  and  soup-kitchens. 
The  social  millennium  is  not  based  on  barricades. 


THIS  great  gospel  is  not  a  cramped,  feeble,  narrow 
thing  of  times  and  seasons ;  but  wherever  God  can  be  wor- 
shipped, or  humanity  be  served,  or  the  spirit  of  love  mani- 
fested, there  is  the  work  of  true  religion. 


LOVE  by  its  own  hidden  processes  will  secure  the  ends 
of  love.  Humanity,  swept  and  winnowed,  trampled  down 
and  thwarted,  fading  and  vanishing  away,  is  taken  up 
and  borne  along  in  the  scope  of  His  great  plan  who  doeth 


all  things  well. 


THE  slender  conduits  of  a  flower  or  a  leaf,  the  finest 
nerves  in  an  insect's  eye,  are  regulated  by  unerring  laws. 
Surely,  then,  the  career  of  nations  is  not  without  an  ap- 
pointed orbit. 


THE  fatal  fact  in  the  case  of  a  hypocrite  is  that  he 
is  a  hypocrite. 


84  LIVING     WORDS. 

IN  every  person's  character  —  his  inward,  spiritual  life 
—  is  the  true  private  account  of  stock  and  capital,  of 
profit  and  loss.  0  merchant  or  mechanic,  so  anxiously 
balancing  your  accounts  for  the  year  !  there  is  stated  the 
precise  amount  of  your  real  wealth,  —  the  only  scrip  and 
substance  you  can  carry  with  you  when  the  years  pass 
away.  0  politician  !  —  man  in  office  and  in  power  !  — 
there  is  the  register  that  enrolls  your  actual  honors,  and 
shows  to  what  you  are  elected.  The  types  of  character 
stamp  deeper  than  printing-presses,  and  will  tell  your 
story  better  than  all  the  newspapers.  0  mariner  !  there 
is  the  log-book  of  years,  declaring  what  course  you  have 
held  in  your  earthly  voyage ;  there  is  the  chart  that  indi- 
cates upon  what  shoals  and  breakers  you  may  be  driving 
now.  Young  man,  young  woman,  there  is  the  journal 
of  your  daily  life ;  there  is  the  remembrancer  that  records 
no  compliments,  no  flatteries,  —  only  the  plain,  honest 
truth. 


WE  do  not  compromise  our  own  faith  by  admitting  the 
honesty  of  another's  doubt. 


THERE  is  no  mockery  like  the  mockery  of  that  spirit 
that  looks  around  in  the  world  and  believes  that  all  is 
emptiness. 


LIVING    WORDS.  85 

SAT,  imperial  diplomatists,  who  are  now  about  settling 
"the  balance  of  Europe,"  will  you  settle  the  balance  of 
crushed  affections  and  sore  bereavements  ?  Can  you  piece 
together  broken  hearts,  and  tie  up  their  shattered  strings 
with  your  red  tape  ?  In  the  parchments  which  you  will 
exchange  with  your  courtesies  and  champagne,  have  you 
estimated  the  value  of  desolate  homesteads,  —  of  bones 
and  sinews  made  of  stuff  as  good  as  your  own  now  bleach- 
ing in  the  ruts  of  battle-fields  ?  Have  you  settled  that 
balance  of  everlasting  justice  and  humanity  which  God 
finally  holds  in  his  hands,  thinking  perhaps  that  your 
crowns  and  sceptres  in  one  scale  will  weigh  down  the  heaps 
of  slaughtered  men  in  the  other  ?  forgetting,  it  may  be, 
the  unmoving  shadows  of  widowhood  and  orphanage  that 
will  brood  amid  the  festal  lights,  and  that  undertone  of  a 
vast  sorrow  which  will  mingle  with  the  salvoes  of  artillery 
and  the  billowy  Te  Deums  that  shall  proclaim  that  the 
nations  are  once  more  "  at  peace ! " 


THE  creed  of  the  true  saint  is  to  make  the  best  of  life, 
and  make  the  most  of  it. 


Do  not  ask  if  a  man  has  been  through  college.  Ask  if 
a  college  has  been  through  him ;  —  if  he  is  a  walking 
university. 

8 


86  LIVING    WORDS. 

ONE  day,  walking  over  a  barren  and  stony  piece  of 
ground,  I  came  upon  a  little  patch  of  verdure  starred  all 
over  with  yellow  flowers  of  the  later  summer,  and  as  it 
opened  upon  me  so  fresh  and  beautiful,  as  though  it  were 
spread  out  there  simply  to  touch  the  sense  of  joy,  and  to 
add  to  the  measure  of  boundless  life,  for  the  time  it  seemed 
to  me  as  glorious  as  the  firmament ;  and  the  majesty  of 
God  was  as  palpable  there,  in  that  little,  unconsidered 
plot,  as  among  the  splendors  of  the  morning,  or  in  the 
sparkling  tent  of  midnight. 


WE  grow  in  artistic  culture,  we  grow  in  ripeness  and 
delicacy  of  taste,  as  we  stand  before  the  great  masters,  and 
drink  in  the  fulness  of  their  genius,  rather  than  by  per- 
plexed efibrts  to  find  out  the  processes  of  their  work.  So 
our  sense  of  beauty  and  of  grandeur  grows  as  we  lean 
upon  the  breast  of  nature,  and  let  its  moods  and  aspects 
pass  into  us,  until  morning,  and  midnight,  and  noontide 
splendor,  and  flushes  of  sunset,  and  rock,  and  woodland, 
and  the  vast,  old  sea,  become  tints  and  forces  of  our  own 
being  inwoven  among  the  filaments  of  our  innermost  life. 
So,  then,  let  our  thoughts  upon  divine  mysteries  lead 
where  they  will,  it  is  by  looking  upon  the  ideal  of  Jesus, 
and  seeking  to  apply  it  in  the  practical  results  of  righte- 
ousness that  we  add  to  our  spiritual  substance. 


LIVING    WORDS.  87 

GREAT  intellect  and  selfish  impulses ;  —  that  is  devil 
nature. 


MAN  was  sent  into  the  world  to  be  a  growing  and  ex- 
haustless  force.  The  world  was  spread  out  around  him 
to  be  seized  and  conquered.  Realms  of  infinite  truth  burst 
open  above  him,  inviting  him  to  tread  those  shining  coasts 
along  which  Newton  dropped  his  plummet,  and  Herschel 
sailed,  —  a  Columbus  of  the  skies. 


NEUTRAL  men  are  the  devil's  allies. 


EUROPE  is  all  sown  over  with  grains  of  gunpowder, 
while  the  emissaries  of  its  kings  are  industriously  at  work 
blowing  out  everything  that  looks  like  light,  and  quench- 
ing everything  that  feels  like  fire.  A  comfortable  time 
of  it  those  continental  kings  must  have,  feeling  as  if  their 
thrones  were  built  against  a  powder-mill,  with  Guy 
Fawkes  at  the  back  door. 


THE  man  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  a  condensed 
Methuselah. 


88  LIVING    WORDS. 

A  BOY  ought  to  be  like  a  cat,  so  that  tumble  him  into 
the  world  any  way  he  will  strike  upon  his  feet. 


WE  cannot  plaster  over  these  questions  of  poverty,  and 
vice,  and  crime  with  a  Christian  sentiment  of  charity,  or 
solve  the  great  social  problems  suggested  by  them  by  the 
decent  proprieties  of  alms-giving.  You  might  as  well 
attempt  to  put  out  the  flames  of  Vesuvius  with  a  bottle 
of  Cologne  water. 


THE  poorest  beggar  that  walks  the  street  is  greater 
than  colossal  New  York,  with  all  its  architectural  grand- 
eur, and  its  crowded  marts,  and  its  laden  ships.  So 
man  is  greater  than  the  church.  Not  the  soul  for  the 
church,  but  the  church  for  the  soul.  And  whenever  the 
soul  is  brought  into  communion  with  Christ,  and  the  di- 
vine life  obtained,  the  end  of  all  is  reached. 


TRUTH  is  new,  as  well  as  old.  It  has  new  forms ;  and 
where  you  find  a  new  statement,  an  earnest  statement, 
you  may  conclude  that  by  the  law  of  progress  it  is  more 
likely  to  be  a  correct  statement  than  that  which  has  been 
repeated  for  ages  by  the  lips  of  tradition. 


LIVING    WORDS.  89 

Go  to  the  man  absorbed  in  this  world  of  time  and  sense, 
and  tell  him  of  the  peace  of  believing,  of  the  satisfaction 
of  love,  of  the  beauty  of  holiness,  and  ydu  talk  to  him  of 
dreams  and  of  shadows.  He  knows  nothing  of  these 
things  in  himself,  and  therefore  your  words  have  no  mean- 
ing for  him.  You  talk  to  him,  as  it  were,  in  a  foreign 
dialect,  and  there  are  hardly  any  corresponding  ideas  in 
his  experience  which  can  furnish  you  with  terms  for  the 

translation  of  joy,  beauty,  and  God But  when 

these  earthly  forms  in  which  he  trusted  are  stripped  away 
and  have  crumbled  down,  the  instincts  within  him  are  left 
free  to  awaken ;  and  then  it  is  that  the  truth  which  Jesus 
utters  —  the  blessed  offer  which  he  makes  —  is  compre- 
hended as  it  cannot  be  before.  0  !  men  come  to  the  New 
Testament  in  a  shady  room,  with  the  darkness  of  this 
world  around  them ;  and  then  it  is  that  like  the  myriad 
stars,  that  are  only  seen  by  night,  the  great  texts  that 
fell  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  shine  out,  and  they  awaken 
suggestions  we  never  saw  before,  and  which  burst  from 
them,  kindling  and  blazing  along  the  old  lines  that  have 
been  written  there  for  nineteen  hundred  years.  Then 
men  begin  to  understand  what  is  the  burden  and  the 
application  of  such  passages  as  "  Come  unto  me  all  ye 
that  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest." 


MORALITY  is  but  the  vestibule  of  religion. 
8* 


90  LIVING     WORDS. 

WHILE-  with  fevered  and  parched  lips  men  lie  around 
this  old,  mossy  brink  of  worldly  pleasure,  —  these  crum- 
bling curb-stonSs  of  human  graves,  —  and  again  and 
again  come  to  lap  there  of  that  which  cannot  fill,  and 
which  never  can  satisfy,  it  is  the  glory  of  spiritual  truth 
—  of  inward  life,  and  peace,  and  righteousness  —  that 
with  ever-enlarging  capacity  there  is  an  ever-enlarging 
abundance,  and  as  we  crave  more  the  more  comes  to  us. 


ALL  evil,  in  fact  the  very  existence  of  evil,  is  inexpli- 
cable until  we  refer  to  the  paternity  of  God.  It  hangs  a 
huge  blot  in  the  universe  until  the  orb  of  divine  love  rises 
behind  it.  In  that  apposition  we  detect  its  meaning.  It 
appears  to  us  but  a  finite  shadow  as  it  passes  across  the 
disc  of  infinite  lisiht. 


THE  most  feeble  and  degraded  of  our  race  is  separated 
by  a  broad  line  from  all  other  creatures.  There  is  a 
moral  deep  in  him,  a  spiritual  power,  which,  obscured  as 
it  is,  is  not  the  possession  of  any  other  earthly  being,  and 
is  a  dim  image  of  the  Eternal.  Under  the  cloud  of  sin 
and  the  corruptions  of  sensualism  there  is  embosomed  an 
essence  which  reflects  the  overshadowing  of  its  Infinite 
Original,  and  sparkles  in  response  to  the  uncreated 
Light. 


LIVING    WORDS.  91 

HE  who  to-day  utters  a  bold  truth  that  seems  to  shock 
some  old  institution  with  the  premonition  of  destruction, 
and  that  scares  men  from  their  propriety,  will  a  hundred 
years  hence  be  regarded  as  a  remarkably  conservative 
man.  .  And  yet  the  people  who  stand  peculiarly  upon 
what  they  call  the  foundations  of  conservatism,  and  hold  to 
hard,  practical  facts,  now  stand  upon  that  which  one  hun- 
dred years  ago  was  rank  heresy.  So  the  world  moves ; 
a  divine,  living  current  flows  under  the  stony  pavement 
of  daily  custom  ;  so  God  draws  us  through  space ;  so  the 
currents  run ;  so  the  winds  blow ;  while  all  the  while  we 
think  that  things  stand  still,  because  we  ourselves  are 
disposed  to  stand  still.  Not  at  all.  Abstractions  move 
the  world;  ideas  wear  crowns,  sway  sceptres,  and  draw 
swords;  and  principles  conquer.  There  is  nothing  so 
immutable  as  truth,  nothing  so  fluent  as  error,  though 
error  stands  surrounded  by  bastions,  and  moats,  and  cas- 
tles, and  turrets,  and  towers,  while  truth  is  nothing  but 
an  humble  cry  in  the  wilderness,  —  a  solitary  idea  that 
finds  its  home  in  a  good  man's  heart. 


BEFORE  the  love  which  is  in  God  all  things  are  sure 
to  come  round  to  his  standard ;  and  the  most  giant  iniquity 
of  earth  strikes  its  head  at  last  against  the  beam  of  God's 
Providence  and  goes  down. 


92  LIVING    WORDS. 

/ 

WHATEVER  theory  we  may  entertain  concerning  pri- 
meval time,  with  whatever  innocence  it  may  have  been 
peopled,  with  whatever  glory  adorned,  it  is  not  for  us  to 
sigh  over  its  lost  loveliness,  or  to  cast  back  wistful  glances 
upon  its  glimmering  gates.  The  Gospel  requires  of  us 
diligent  hands,  prayerful  hearts,  and  &  forward  look.  It 
urges  self-sacrifice,  but  it  holds  out  a  glorious  expectancy. 
Humanity  is  in  neither  a  state  of  decay  nor  of  stagna- 
tion. It  is  moving,  and  moving  for  the  better.  Conti- 
nents of  time  and  mountains  of  difficulty  may  stretch  be- 
tween us  and  the  glad  era,  but  a  serene  light  streams 
down  from  heaven  upon  the  destinies  of  the  race,  and  an 
auroral  promise  tints  the  horizon  of  the  future. 


WITH  infinite  depths  of  truth,  and  an  incessant  spring  of 
spiritual  life,  Christianity  cannot  be  limited  to  any  time,  or 
petrified  in  any  shape.  It  is  fluent  and  eternal.  The 
reconciling  element  of  the  world,  it  goes  forth  into  every 
age,  and  responds  to  the  deepest  tone  of  want  in  every 
posture  of  humanity. 


THE  expression  of  God  is  in  nature,  and  it  never 
looks  approvingly  to  the  bad,  nor  inhospitable  to  the 
good. 


LIVING    WORDS.  93 

A  FULL  and  steady  perception  of  God  would  melt  every 
heart  in  homage  before  him. 


THE  ocean  is  beautiful,  lulled  to  rest ; 

The  pictured  stars  that  gem  its  breast 

Are  epitaphs,  written  upon  the  deep, 

Over  the  places  where  loved  ones  sleep. 

Beautiful,  where  no  mortal  eye 

Looks  in  on  its  gorgeous  heraldry, 

Is  the  vast,  cjpep  sea  !     And  beautiful,  too, 

Where  it  spreads  to  the  gaze  its  expanded  blue, 

Or  reflects  the  clouds  in  their  pomp  unrolled, 

And  moves  in  its  glory  of  green  and  gold. 


NATURE  takes  a  higher  aspect  from  places  where  good 
and  memorable  deeds  have  been  done,  and  it  lends  to 
them  a  deeper  charm.  It  is  enriched  with  rarer  sanctity; 
it  sheds  more  blessed  dew  upon  the  spot  where  the  hero 
struggled,  or  the  martyr  perished,  or  the  righteous  sleep. 
Palestine  will  always  be  a  "Holy  Land." 


GOD'S  work  is  freedom.  Freedom  is  dear  to  his  heart. 
He  wishes  to  make  man's  will  free,  and  at  the  same  time 
wishes  it  to  be  pure,  majestic,  and  holy. 


94  LIVING    WORDS. 

GENIUS  is  the  accumulated  wealth  of  our  humanity,  — 
its  most  intense  development  concentrated  at  one  point,  and 
then  with  clearer  expression  and  with  mysterious  power 
shot  back  to  us  across  the  galvanic  lines  of  thought  and 
feeling. 


IT  is  a  great  thing,  when  our  Gethsemane  hours  come, 
—  when  the  cup  of  bitterness  is  pressed  to  our  lips,  and 
when  we  pray  that  it  may  pass  away,  —  to  feel  that  it  is 
not  fate,  that  it  is  not  necessity,  but  divine  love  for  good 
ends  working  upon  us. 


WHEN  a  man  would  send  out  the  organ-music  of  in- 
spiring truth ;  when  he  would  sweep  the  entire  diapason 
of  patriotic  and  Christian  sentiment ;  when  he  would  wake 
the  land  with  some  old  passage  of  the  past,  or  some  jubi- 
lant strain  of  the  future,  —  let  him  set  his  foot  upon  the 
pedal  of  Plymouth  Rock,  and  strike  the  keys  of  Fanueil 
Hall !  * 


CHARACTER  has  more  effect  than  anything  else.  Let 
a  number  of  loud-talking  men  take  up  a  particular  ques- 
tion, and  one  man  of  character,  of  known  integrity  and 
beauty  of  soul,  will  outweigh  them  all  in  his  influence. 


At  a  Festival  in  Fanueil  Hall. 


LIVING    WORDS.  95 

IN  calm,  fine  nights  of  the  latter  summer,  when  the 
woods  are  clothed  with  the  luxuriance  of  maturity,  and 
the  corn  stands  fully  ripe,  —  in  the  clear  midnight,  when 
all  else  is  still,  —  there  comes  a  manifestation  as  of  the 
conscious  earth  communing  with  the  conscious  universe. 
There  rises  a  low,  deep  murmur  of  the  sea  upon  its  shores, 
and  the  leaves  shiver  with  a  sudden  ecstacy,  and  a  light 
of  answering  gladness  ripples  along  the  firmament,  and 
sparkles  to  the  edge  of  the  remotest  constellations.  It  is 
as  if  nature  herself  knew  the  counsel  that  embosoms  all 
things,  and  for  a  moment  confessed  the  glorious  purpose. 
This  may  be  fancy,  but  surely  it  symbolizes  a  consoling 
fact.  As  in  space,  so  in  the  immensity  of  God's  plan,  and 
among  the  ministering  influences  of  his  Providence,  our 
world  is  carried  onward ;  with  the  graves  of  the  saints  and 
the  martyrs  on  her  breast,  and  the  cresent  good  slowly 
spreading  over  her ;  and  the  seeds  of  truth  and  righteous- 
ness, planted  with  great  pains  and  buried  often  in  seem- 
ing defeat,  are  swelling  with  life  and  bursting  into 
victory. 


THE  excellence  and  inspiration  of  truth  is  in  the  pur- 
suit, not  in  the  mere  having  of  it.  The  pursuit  of  all 
truth  is  a  kind  of  gymnastics;  a  man  swings  from  one  truth 
with  higher  strenth  to  gain  another.  The  continual  glory 
and  joy  is  the  possibility  opening  before  us. 


yb  LIVING    WORDS. 

I  BELIEVE  all  things  lead  to  final  joy ;  I  believe  that 
the  brightest  flowering  of  existence  will  be  in  joy;  that  the 
atmosphere  of  heaven  will  be  in  joy.  But  it  is  not  true 
that  our  being's  end  and  aim,  or  rather  that  the  object  of 
this  life,  is  merely  to  be  happy  and  comforted.  And 
therefore  people  make  a  great  mistake  who  complain  of 
religion  because  it  does  not  remove  all  evils. 


THE  way  to  overcome  evil  is  to  love  something  that 
is  good.  No  man  in  this  world  ever  conquered  evil 
merely  by  butting  against  it  with  his  will,  but  by  getting 
into  positive  love  for  goodness,  by  which  this  evil  becomes 
hateful. 


/  "  LET  it  pass  from  me,"  said  Christ,  in  the  agony  of 
/  the  garden,  as  the  sweat  fell  like  drops  of  blood  upon  the 
ground.  Thank  God  that  he  prayed  "Let  this  cup  pass 
from  me,"  and  justified  the  trembling  weakness  of  our 
humanity.  If  he  had  said  "  Let  it  come ;  I  can  meet  it," 
he  would  not  have  been  a  Christ. 


IT  is  the  penalty  of  fame  that  a  man  must  ever  keep 
rising.  "  Get  a  reputation  and  then  go  to  bed,"  is  the 
absurdest  of  all  maxims.  "Keep  up  a  reputation  or  go 
to  bed,"  would  be  nearer  the  truth. 


LIVING    WORDS.  97 

HE  who  has  been  wandering  in  the  maze  of  false  con- 
ceptions, and  upon  whom,  at  length,  has  burst  the  truth 
of  God's  paternity,  opens  his  Bible  as  a  new  book.  Chris- 
tianity spreads  around  him  a  firmament  of  sudden  glory, 
and  reveals  to  his  eye  unexpected  riches.  Knowing  that 
he  is  our  Father,  through  the  storm  and  the  night  we 
may  trustingly  proceed ;  for  the  star  of  his  compassion 
never  sets,  and  he  spans  our  voyage  with  a  zodiac  of 
promises.  . 

STUIKE  upon  what  path  of  moral  attainment  you  may, 
that  path  intersects  with  and  involves  all  others. 


WE  speak  of  the  works  of  God  as  though  we  meant 
merely  this  finished  material  universe  thereby.  Yet  he 
has  been  continually  working  even  there.  The  earth  in 
its  convulsions  is  nothing  but  a  rocking-cradle  for  the 
various  stages  of  progress  and  development  And  when 
each  one  has  reached  its  full  period  of  development,  then 
the  foundations  of  a  new  epoch  are  cradled  upon  them,  they 
become  the  tomb-stones  of  the  past,  and  new  forms  of  life 
come  forth.  And  so  it  is  in  spiritual  and  moral  things;  God 
is  continually  doing  a  work.  And  when  we  have  reached 
the  extreme  of  our  effort,  have  gone  as  far  as  we  can,  it  ia 
an  indication  that  we  are  to  stand  still  and  see  what  God's 
working  will  be. 
9 


98  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  silent  stars  that  stand  sentinal  at  the  gates  of 
heaven  keep  a  glorious  secret ;  the  dark,  still  curtains  of 
the  grave,  that  folds  its  heavy  veil  before  me,  hides  a 
great  secret.  Those  processes  of  mystery,  that  are  so 
silent  in  human  life  and  human  affairs,  are  all  full  of  a 
great  secret,  —  be  patient,  and  wait.  The  faith  that  tells 
me  to  do  this  is  the  faith  of  development,  of  movement ; 
the  faith  that  enables  me  to  be  something  higher  and  do 
something  better. 


THE  ascetic  is  often  nothing  more  than  the  sensualist 
upon  the  obverse  side.  Each  is  engaged  by  the  appetites, 
and  each  is  spiritually  hindered  by  them ;  although  the 
one  is  doing  his  best  to  serve  them,  and  the  other  his  best 
to  extirpate  them.  The  true  method  is  simply  to  let 
them  alone, — to  leave  them  in  the  orbit  God  has  ordained 
for  them,  guarding  against  them  not  by  arbitrary  restric- 
tions or  fixed  embankments,  but  by  positive  life  and  pure 
afiections. 


IN  proportion  to  the  difficulty  of  the  endeavor  is  the 
glory  of  the  achievement.  The  rich  man  who  complies 
with  the  terms  of  discipleship  is  a  stronger  man  than  he 
who  glides  into  them  almost  by  the  sheer  pressure  of 
poverty. 


LIVING    WORDS.  99 

WHEN  Douglas  was  carrying  the  heart  of  Bruce  in 
the  silver  case,  to  bury  it  in  the  Holy  Land,  he  was  at- 
tacked by  a  body  of  Turks ;  and  finding  the  result  some- 
what doubtful  he  took  the  silver  case  and  flung  it  among 

o  o 

the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  saying,  "0,  brave  heart  of  Bruce! 
go  forward  as 'you  have  ever  done,  and  I  will  follow." 
fake  the  beating  heart  of  Christ  and  throw  it  among  your 
temptations,  and  follow  where  that  leads,  by  its  divine  im- 
pulses, by  its  eternal  recognition  of  that  which  alone  is 
right,  and  good,  and  true. 


IT  may  not  be  an  invariable  test,  but  certainly  there  is 
ground  of  doubt  as  to  the  faithfulness  of  that  man  whose 
way  in  the  world  is  always  smooth  and  easy. 


ALL  nature  is  a  vast  symbolism :     Every  material  fact 
has  sheathed  within,  it  a  spiritual  truth. 


THE  elements  of  genius  need  the  controlling  power  of 
a  still  deeper  life ;  else  that  which  astonishes  and  dazzles 
the  world  often  burns  by  making  wreck  and  fuel  of  those 
finer  sensibilities  and  more  eloquent  passions  which  sepa- 
rate the  man  of  genius  from  the  rest  of  his  kind,  and  fit 
him  to  be  their  oracle. 


100  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  peculiar  sympathy  of  God  with  human  souls,  over 
and  above  the  sympathy  that  he  has  with  the  round  globe 
that  he  has  sent  into  space,  with  the  little  violet  which  he 
wets  with  dew,  with  the  flower  whose  cup  he  fills  with 
golden  sunshine,  with  the  cattle  for  whom  he  has  spread  a 
carpet  on  a  thousand  hills,  —  the  sympathy  of  God  with 
the  being  that  is  like  unto  himself  in  deathless  aspiration 
of  faculties  could  only  be  expressed  by  a  person.  Na- 
ture does  not  express  it ;  —  nature  does  not  touch  us  as 
he  did  who  came  to  consort  with  our  weakness,  to  stoop  to 
our  lowliness,  to  pity  us  under  the  burden  of  our  sins,  and 
nr  us  home  to  God. 


0  SOLITARY  heart !  0  darkened,  troubled  soul !  when 
you  want  to  know  who  is  dealing  with  you,  do  not  take 
the  telescope  and  try  to  find  him  by  piercing  the  blank 
immensity  of  space ;  do  not  go  to  philosophy,  spun  from 
poor  human  conceits,  that  may  bewilder  and  lead  astray. 
Turn  over  the  leaves  of  the  Evangelists,  —  old  leaves,  wet 
by  a  million  tears,  and  consecrated  by  a  million  prayers, 
—  over  which  struggling  hearts  have  breathed  with  hope 
and  trust ;  —  come  to  these  pages ;  take  the  delineation 
of  Jesus  there.  They  will  tell  you  what  God  is,  who  is 
dealing  with  you  in  the  strange,  mysterious  passages  of 
life.  And  if  you  want  to  know  what  man  should  be, 
there  it  is. 


LIVING    WORDS.  101 

As  the  eye  requires  the  light,  and  is  incomplete  with- 
out it,  so  does  the  human  soul  crave,  —  so  is  it  not  only 
incomplete,  but  inexplicable,  without  God  and  immor- 
tality. 


THE  themes  which  the  poet  consecrated  ages  since  are 
just  as  dear  to  us  now,  —  are  as  fresh  and  beautiful  as 
the  water  and  the  light.  The  strains  with  which  he  urged 
his  own  generation  to  freedom  stir  our  pulses  like  a 
trumpet.  His  magic  line  touches  the  fountain  of  our  tears, 
and  we  weep  at  the  woes  which  he  bewailed.  His  words 
of  love,  and  truth,  and  gladness  echo  from  heart  to  heart 
forever,  because  mankind  is  one. 


WHEREVER  man  thinks  or  acts  broods  the  idea  of 
God.  It  is  the  germ  and  meaning  of  every  form  of  wor- 
ship. No  religion,  however  rude  or  gross  its  expression, 
is  wholly  arbitrary.  It  never  originated  with  kings  or 
priests.  If  any  one  thinks  so  let  him  explain  how  kings 
and  priests  came  by  the  idea,  and  how  it  was  so  readily 
received  by  men,  and  how  it  is  that  in  one  form  or  another 
it  appears  all  over  the  earth.  Religion  cannot  be  arbi- 
trary, —  cannot  be  a  fabrication.  It  is  the  breaking  forth 
of  a  necessity  of  our  nature.  It  is  the  human  spiiit  ac- 
knowledging and  seeking  its  source. 
9* 


102  LIVING    WOKDS. 

GOODNESS  consists  not  in  the  outward  things  we  do, 
but  in  the  inward  thing  we  are.  To  be  is  the  great 
thing. 


THE  very  fact  that  great  intellectual  problems  baffle 
us,  —  that  the  realm  of  truth  seems  endless,  —  that  we 
stagger  before  the  great  problems  of  existence,  and  long 
to  know  them,  —  is  to  me  prophetic  of  a  higher  state, 
•when  I  shall  know  them,  and  go  on  to  know  more  and 
more. 


IT  is  not  the  man  that  gives  me  most  of  outward  things 
that  helps  me  to  live ;  but  the  man  who  gives  me  thoughts, 
and  ideas  by  which  a  wider  sweep  of  beauty  opens  to  my 
vision,  and  kindles  in  me  holy  affections,  by  which  I  rise 
nearer  to  God. 


CHRISTIANITY  has  no  alliance  with  cowardice,  or  wat- 
ery sentimentalism.  It  lies  at  the  roots  of  all  genuine 
manliness,  and  the  results  of  its  development  are  before 
the  world.  It  has  furnished  the  grandest  examples  of 
strength  of  purpose  and  practical  power.  It  has  been  the 
animating  impulse  in  the  lives  of  the  truly  great,  and 
has  rolled  through  the  veins  of  heroes. 


LIVING    WORDS.  103 

OUR  faith  in  the  miracles  is  in  this :  that  we  believe  in 
them  because  of  Christ,  rather  than  in  Christ  because  of 
them.  Such  a  life  as  his  was  competent  to  perform  such 
miracles.  The  great  wonder  of  all,  in  this  sinful  world, 
is,  that  once  there  stood  on  the  platform  of  actual  life  a 
being  like  that ;  that  once  that  divine  ideal  rose  like  the 
sun  in  our  horizon;  that  once  that  pure,  self-sacrificing 
love  made  itself  manifest.  It  was  not  in  man's  heart  to 
conceive  it,  nor  in  his  mind  to  make  it ;  but  all  that  is 
beautiful  in  our  ideal,  all  that  is  noble  in  our  inspiration, 
has  been  caused  by  it. 


IN  this  business- world  a  good  many  set  up  a  standard 
that  slants  a  little  from  the  divine  perpendicular. 


(  KELIQION  sows  within  us  the  seeds  of  an  undying  joy 
that  fails  not  Avhen  outward  means  of  happiness  fail,  and 

•  sorrows  darken,  and  cares  appall.  It  sheds  abroad  a  holy 
serenity  in  the  heart,  and  imparts  a  calm  lustre  to  the 
brow.  It  is  a  principle  of  truth,  and  therefore  it  allows 
us  nothing  that  is  treacherous  and  wrong ;  but  all  that 
makes  happy,  and  grateful,  and  good  it  opens  for  us  in 
abundant  measure.  It  reveals  new  sources  of  happiness. 
It  makes  the  spire  of  grass  and  the  star  beautiful  minis- 

,  ters  of  delight. 


104  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  loss  of  fortune  to  a  true  man  is  but  the  trumpet- 
challenge  to  renewed  exertion,  not  the  thunder-stroke  of 
destruction.  He  is  not  a  true  man  who  is  broken  down 
bj  the  loss  of  worldly  fortune ;  he  is  not  a  true  man  who 
says,  "  Everything  is  lost :  the  decks  are  swept  clean,  the 
masts  are  swept  overboard,  and  I  am  a  poor,  foundering 
wreck,  without  a  hope  of  life."  No  such  thing.  You  are 
a  man ;  have  a  man's  heart  in  you.  God  is  over  you ;  you 
have  health  and  a  soul,  and  the  world  is  wide.  Shame 
on  you,  if  for  any  transient  loss  of  fortune,  any  darkening 
change  in  your  worldly  condition,  you  give  everything 
up. 


THE  glory  of  the  visible  creation  is,  or  would  be,  a  per- 
fect man.  There  are  beautiful  creations  all  around  us 
that  manifest  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  God.  But  the 
Father  has  given  nothing  so  glorious  and  so  precious  as 
the  human  soul.  The  flower,  and  the  ocean,  and  the  sun- 
beam are  the  works  of  his  hands :  but  this,  the  soul,  is 
the  representative  of  his  very  nature.  The  morning  star 
shines  with  a  perishable  lustre ;  the  sea  with  all  its  strength 
shall  be  rolled  together  as  a  vapor,  and  pass  away ;  but  a 
pure,  righteous,  and  loving  soul  has  in  it  the  eternity  and 
the  likeness  of  God,  and  shall  survive  all  outward  and 
material  things. 


LIVING    WORDS.  105 

WHAT  if  a  boulder  from  the  pro- Adamite  world  should 
crash  against  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  can  that  quench 
your  thirst  for  divine  life,  or  cancel  the  fact  that  Christ 
satisfies  that  thirst  ?  He  has  little  faith  in  the  Bible  who 
turns  his  reason  into  a  dark-lantern  to  read  it  by.  Fear 
not  that  the  freight  of  divine  truth  which  that  book 
carries  sublimely  over  the  waves  of  ages  will  ever  be 
wrecked  on  any  coast  of  scientific  discovery.  In  no 
depth  of  strata  shall  we  find  anything  older  than  the  God 
it  reveals.  In  no  new  system  unfolding  from  the  bright 
and  awful  mysteries  of  the  sky  will  this  yearning,  strug- 
gling soul  discover  anything  so  needed  as  the  salvation 
which  that  Bible  brings,  and  the  immortal  bliss  to  which 
it  leads  the  way. 


THE  great  doctrine  of  human  brotherhood  —  of  the 
worth  of  a  man,  — that  he  is  not  to  be  trod  upon  as  a  foot- 
stool, or  dashed  in  pieces  as  a  worthless  vessel,  —  and  the 
doctrines  that  grow  out  of  this  —  the  doctrines  of  popular 
liberty,  education  and  reform ;  —  all  these  have  become 
active  and  every-day  truths  only  under  the  influence  of 
Christianity. 


DESPITE  all  refinement,  the  light  and  habitual  taking 
of  God's  name  betrays  a  coarse  nature  and  a  brutal  will. 


106  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  very  elements  of  democratic  liberty  are  the  ele- 
ments of  despotism,  when  they  are  monopolized  and 
turned  in  for  the  behoof  of  a  single  man ;  and  it  is  possi- 
ble that  they  may  prove  to  be  nothing  more  than  ele- 
ments of  despotism,  multiplied  by  thousands,  so  long  as 
they  are  exclusive,  selfish,  and  greedy  elements.  If  we 
quit  the  old  heavy  barge  and  take  a  steamboat,  it  will  be 
better  or  worse  as  we  use  it.  It  will  carry  us  quicker 
into  port,  but  it  will  carry  us  quicker  to  destruction.  It 
will  carry  us  more  rapidly  through  the  Highlands  of  the 
Hudson,  if  we  are  inclined  to  go  that  way ;  it  will  carry  us 
more  rapidly  over  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  if  we  are  inclined 
to  go  that  way.  And  with  these  grand  ideas,  with  these 
potent  elements,  we  as  a  people  arc  just  in  that  critical 
state  whence  we  shall  emerge  into  the  noblest  social  form 
the  world  has  ever  yet  seen,  or  give  birth  to  the  most 
hideous  despotism  it  has  ever  borne  upon  its  surface. 


IN  studying  the  fact  of  human  progress,  as  affected  by 
Christianity,  we  must  employ  a  standard  equal  to  the 
magnitude  of  the  movement.  We  must  not  consider 
merely  the  access  or  recess  in  isolated  instances.  "We  must 
examine  the  tide-water  marks  of  centuries,  and  then  we 
shall  find  that  the  great  deep,  as  a  whole,  has  been  heaved 
up  to  a  higher  level. 


LIVING    WORDS.  107 

THE  moment  Christianity  struck  the  earth  it  was  evi- 
dent that  a  new  and  astonishing  force  was  in  the  world, 
—  a  force  affecting  the  mass  of  humanity,  and  not  merely 
a  few  individuals,  a  sect',  or  a  nation.  Yes,  a  new  force  it 
was  that  burst  as  it  were  from  the  very  core  of  the  world, 
breaking  the  old  order  of  things  in  pieces,  dashing  down 
its  marble  superstitions,  injecting  a  distinct  peculiarity 
among  its  granitic  customs,  and  leaving  a  chasm  between 
ancient  and  modern  history.  That  dividing-line  which  no 
eye  can  miss  is  the  threshold  whence  the  Kingdom  of 
God  began  its  march  through  the  earth.  Since  then  it 
has  been  evident  that  a  moral  power  is  among  men,  ac- 
complishing vast  and  blessed  changes. 


No  man,  however  logically  he  may  have  arrived  at  the 
conclusion  that  he  sins  by  God's  adamantine  decree,  — 
that  he  is  fated  to  be  wicked,  —  fails  to  feel  rebuked  when 
he  does  sin.  Conscience  mutters  its  thunder  against  the 
wrong,  and  a  sense  of  retribution  opens  in  his  soul.  But 
why  the  indignant  remonstrance,  why  the  foreboding  fear, 
if  he  has  done  only  what  he  was  obliged  to  do  ?  Say 
what  he  will,  his  moral  nature,  as  authentic  and  as  infal- 
lible as  his  intellect,  assures  him  by  its  rebuke  that  he 
had  a  power  of  choice,  and  that  having  freely  chosen  the 
.wrong  he  must  pay  the  penalty  of  his  election. 


108  LIVING     WORDS. 

LIFE  is  the  greatest  thing  that  could  be  given  to  us. 
It  is  the  greatest  thing  which  man  can  communicate  to 
his  fellow-man,  when  .he  enlarges  in  any  way  his  life, 
—  gives  him  a  new  faculty.  When  the  artist  finds  new 
beauty;  when  a  new  fact  is  discovered;  when  Galileo 
turned  his  leaden  tube  to  the  skies,  and  saw  the  phases  of 
Venus  and  the  satellites  of  Jupiter ;  when  Columbus  re- 
turns with  tattered  sails  to  bring  the  glory  of  a  new 
world ;  when  Cuvier  reads  the  earth  in  its  mineralogy  and 
its  animal  structure,  passing  from  fibre  to  fibre,  from  or- 
gan to  organ,  until  he  reaches  the  highest  truth ;  when- 
ever human  philanthropy  gives  new  utterance  to  the 
divine  love,  —  it  adds  to  the  life  of  humanity,  and  con- 
tributes the  greatest  thing  a  man  can  give  to  the  human 
race.  Christ  has  enlarged  it  more  than  all.  He  has  given 
the  whole  soul  life.  He  has  brought  it  into  infinite  com- 
munion with  the  Father.  He  has  made  the  eternal  world 
real  to  us. 


GOD'S  sovereignty  is  his  absolute  control.     His  will  is 
the  disposition  with  which  he  wields  that  control. 


WE  pray  that  God's  will  may  be  done.  But  do  we  do  it. 
Let  each  look  into  his  own  heart.  How  is  that  ?  Is  there 
no  moral  dislocation,  —  no  resistance  to  God's  will  there  ? 


LIVING    WORDS.  109 

TRUE,  our  religion  -was  cradled  amid  the  despotisms  of 
antiquity,  It  commanded  allegiance  to  Caesar,  and  for- 
bade political  resistance  by  its  disciples  at  that  day.  But 
he  who  imagines  that  therefore  Christianity  sanctions  des- 
potism, or  absolute  monarchy,  or  social  inequality,  or  a 
privileged  perpetual  ruling  order  of  men,  must  reason 
from  most  narrow  premises.  Christianity  came  prepared 
for  a  gradual  work,  —  to  perform  its  labor  among  men  as 
the  sunshine  and  moisture  do  theirs ;  to  bring  its  ideas  to 
perfection  among  men  as  the  reed  is  brought  forth  to  har- 
vest. Calm,  serene,  acquiescent,  it  laid  down  its  princi- 
ples, knowing  that  in  process  of  ages  their  triumph  was 
certain,  —  knowing  that  by  and  by,  as  the  sure  results 
of  natural  law,  the  throne  of  the  tyrant  would  crumble, 
the  chains  of  the  bondman  be  broken,  and  the  sword  of 
rapine  and  war  sheathed  forever. 


To  Him  who  rolls  yon  spheres  in  their  path  of  light, 
and  pours  out  "  sweet  influences  "  from  their  golden  urns ; 
who  holds  the  earth  in  His  hand,  and  brings  the  seasons 
in  their  course ;  who  regards  the  fall  of  the  sparrow,  and 
numbers  the  hairs  of  our  head,  —  to  Him  it  is  fitting  that 
from  the  altar  of  each  heart  prayer  and  pious  confidence 
should  ascend  for  all  the  destinies  of  the  future.* 

*  Fast  Day. 
10 


110  LIVING    WORDS. 

THIS  is  the  day  on  which  the  old  Church  celebrates 
with  peculiar  honor  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  As 
though  it  were  a  new  truth,  the  hells  of  Easter  morning 
have  pealed  round  the  world  the  glad  announcement  that 
he  who  had  slept  in  the  bosom  of  the  earth,  at  early  dawn 
withdrew  the  eclipse  of  death,  and  broke  forth  from  the 
sepulchre  —  the  Lord  of  Life  and  Glory.  And  as  the 
mighty  declaration  echoes  in  our  ears,  and  our  torpid 
worldliness  is  shaken  by  the  rush  of  angels'  feet,  is  it 
not  indeed  like  a  new  truth  to  realize  by  this  resurrec- 
tion that  we  too  shall  live  forever  ?  —  that  the  shadows 
which  fled  from  the  Saviour's  tomb  were  as  the  veils  of  our 
own  mortality  vanishing  in  the  light  of  God  ?  If  this  be 
so,  then  let  us  live  no  more  in  shadows,  but  in  realities. 
Let  the  prayer  that  Christ  taught  us,  and  which  we  so 
often  need  among  the  broken  passages  of  life,  foretoken 
the  verities  and  lift  us  to  the  communion  of  heaven. 


EVEN  yet  Christ  Jesus  has  to  lie  out  in  waste  places 
very  often,  because  there  is  no  room  for  him  in  the  inn,  — 
no  room  for  him  in  our  hearts,  because  of  our  worldliness. 
There  is  no  room  for  him  even  in  our  politics  and  religion. 
There  is  no  room  in  the  inn,  and  we  put  him  in  the  man- 
ger, and  he  lies  outside  of  our  faith,  coldly  and  dimly 
conceived  by  us. 


LIVING    WORDS.  Ill 

WE  are  conscious  of  a  will  independent  and  personal. 
In  this  we  find  a  strong  demonstration  of  the  existence  of 
a  God.  For  the  experience  of  a  will  in  ourselves  renders 
us  capable  of  detecting  the  indications  of  another  and  a 
divine  will  in  the  works  of  the  universe. 


x 

PROFANENESS  is  an  awful  vice.  Whose  name  is*  it 
you  so  lightly  use  ?  That  name  of  GOD  !  Have  you 
ever  pondered  its  meaning?  Have  you  ever  thought 
what  it  is  that  you  mingle  thus  with  your  passion  and 
your  wit  ?  It  is  the  name  of  him  whom  the  angels  wor- 
ship, and  whom  the  heaven  of  heavens  cannot  contain. 


THE  scholar  is  more  encumbered  by  the  consciousness 
of  what  he  lacks  than  by  the  wealth  of  his  acquisitions  j 
and  the  saint  is  so  busy  with  what  is  yet  required  that  he 
has  little  time  to  count  what  has  been  achieved. 


BELIEF  in  God  does  not  rest  upon  a  mere  doctrine  of 
logic,  which  some  other  statement  of  logic  may  come  and 
upset.  It  is  one  of  those  primal  facts  in  the  human  soul 
which  no  mere  logic  has  established  nor  can  refute. 


112  LIVING    WORDS. 

ONLY  by  the  love  of  God,  in  whom  all  truth  and 
righteousness  are  centered,  do  you  get  true  light  to  see 
evil  and  to  hate  evil  as  you  should. 


IN  the  revelation  of  the  Father  the  majesty  of  God  is 
brought  down  to  us,  his  infinity  personified,  and  his  ex- 
haustless  love  tenderly  expressed.  Without  this,  how 
awful,  how  overwhelming  would  be  the  act  of  devotion ! 
Science  is  daily  revealing  to  us  a  wider  scope  and  a  loftier 
grandeur  in  the  universe.  To  the  exploring  eye  it  opens 
new  vistas  of  creation,  and  pours  upon  its  dazzled  vision 
the  brightness  of  innumerable  suns.  And  among  these 
dimly  swings  this  atom  of  a  world,  and  far  beyond  all 
reaches  the  infinity  of  God !  How  could  we  have  confi- 
dence to  look  up  to  him,  through  all  these  countless  myr- 
iads and  this  intolerable  splendor  ?  And  again,  when  we 
consider  his  holiness  and  our  impurity,  —  the  awfulness 
of  God  and  the  insignificance  of  man,  —  were  it  not  for  his 
own  help  we  should  not  dare  to  approach  him.  But  this 
revelation  of  "  The  FATHER"  has  swept  away  all  the  bar- 
riers of  distance ;  it  has-streamed  into  our  souls  through  a.ll 
the  glories  of  the  universe ;  it  has  touched  us  with  the  in- 
timate nearness,  the  infinite  condescension  of  God,  and 
gathered  into  that  one  name  all  that  is  venerable  with  all 
that  is  lovely. 


LIVING    WORDS.  113 

IT  is  the  great  peculiarity  of  many  of  the  Psalms  that 
they  speak  from  and  they  speak  to  the  inward  life. 
There  is  no  stamp  of  external  history  upon  them,  —  no 
finger-mark  of  age  or  place.  They  are  an  artesian  well  of 
thought  and  sentiment,  that  has  been  sunk  through  the 
crust  of  all  centuries,  whence  the  human  soul  may  draw 
and  drink,  and  recognize  the  deep  uuder-spring  of  its  own 
experience.  In  one  word,  they  are  essentially  of  the  soul, 
and  so  time  and  space  are  canceled  by  them.  They  are 
the  language  of  a  common  humanity,  whose  emphasis  is 
in  every  needy,  or  troubled,  or  rejoicing  heart,  and  is  fit- 
ted to  all  lives.  If  one  wants  expressions  to  convey  what 
is  deep  in  him  he  can  find  those  expressions  nowhere  so 
fully  and  so  readily  as  here.  So  the  Psalms  live  forever, 
and  are  little  affected  by  the  criticism  that  may  break  off 
bits  of  Genesis  or  flaw  the  book  of  Kings.  Touching 
God  and  the  human  soul,  they  glide  over  all  things  else 
in  the  great  ground-swell  of  spiritual  truth. 


THE  letter  of  the  Scripture  may  be  questioned  and 
argued,  but  you  cannot  question  the  love  of  the  Father 
nor  the  gift  of  the  Son.  My  heart  felt  this  when  I  laid 
my  loved  child  to  rest,  and  your  science  on  all  its  burning 
axles  cannot  grind  from  my  heart  all  the  comfort  God's 
love  gave  me  then. 
10* 


114  LIVING    WORDS. 

A  DIRECT  answer  to  prayer  from  God  does  not  imply 
any  change  in  him  nor  in  his  ordinances ;  but  simply  that 
in  prayer  a  certain  instrumentality  is  used,  upon  the  ex- 
ercise of  which  certain  results  will  follow,  which  would 
not  ensue  without  the  use  of  this  instrumentality.  It  is 
an  ordinance  of  God  that  the  harvest  shall  depend  upon 
the  sowing  of  seed.  If  that  instrumentality  is  not  em- 
ployed no  result  follows.  But  still,  the  possibilities  all 
exist,  whether  the  means  are  used  or  not ;  and  should  it 
have  so  happened  that  man  had  sowed  the  seed  but  once, 
contrary  to  all  human  experience,  past  and  future,  a  har- 
vest would  have  sprung  up.  But  would  this  unusual 
fact  have  violated  any  law  of  nature?  Certainly  not. 
The  strange  result  would  have  indicated  simply  a  compli- 
ance with  established  terms,  which  compliance  had  not 
been  previously  rendered.  So  is  it,  as  I  conceive,  with 
prayer.  It  is  a  spiritual  instrumentality,  upon  the  em- 
ployment of  which  certain  results  are  contingent.  And 
that  God  should  grant  peculiar  and  direct  blessings  upon 
the  touching  of  that  one  spring,  which  he  will  give  in  no 
other  way,  is  no  more  miraculous  than  that  he  should  give 
the  harvest  when  the  seed  is  sown.  To  say  that  he  grants 
answers  to  prayer  as  well  as  to  labor  is  only  saying  that 
man  works  with  God  and  God  with  man  in  more  ways 
than  one.  How  he  answers  prayer  is  a  mystery,  but  it  is 
no  more  a  mystery  than  the  process  which  converts  the 
kernel  into  the  full  corn  in  the  ear,  —  than  the  connection 


LIVING    WORDS,  115 

between  thought  and  action,  —  than  the  existence  of 
God,  and  the  methods  of  his  communication  with  the 
human  soul. 


THERE  is  no  controlling  force,  there  is  no  permanent 
dominion  in  the  universe,  but  that  of  love ;  and  every  age 
more  and  more  clearly  indicates  this  truth.  The  Spirit 
which  is  to  sink  into  the  hearts  of  men,  and  subdue  the 
evil  that  is  there,  —  the  Spirit  before  which  the  desert 
shall  blossom  as  the  rose,  and  the  world  be  transfigured 
with  the  glory  of  the  millennial  day,  —  is  that  which  was 
manifested  Avhen  God  gave  his  only-begotten  Son.  The 
greatest  instrument  of  power  and  victory  ever  sent  into 
the  world  is  the  cross. 


WE  not  only  give  an  undue  exaltation  to  the  appetites 
when  we  yield  them  a  blind  service,  but  when  we  concen- 
trate upon  them  a  microscopic  surveillance.  It  is  a 
grave  idea  of  heaven  to  conceive  it  as  one  set  of  external 
circumstances,  which  we  attain  by  escaping  from  another 
set  here  below.  It  is  a  crude  religiousness  which  seeks  to 
glorify  the  future  life  by  depreciating  this,  or  that  villi- 
fies  the  body  in  order  to  exalt  the  soul.  It  is  a  great 
mistake  to  confound  extatic  feelings  and  super-mundane 
moods  with  essential  righteousness. 


116  LIVING    WORDS. 

SELF-CONCEIT  and  haughtiness,  or  fulness  of  soul,  aro 
barriers  to  progress.  They  are  generally  the  landmarks 
of  a  shallow  attainment.  The  true  man  never  surfeits 
upon  his  attainments,  but  probes  his  deficiencies  and  sum- 
mons his  ideals. 


THE  world  is  generally  a  reflex  of  ourselves.  If  you 
find  a  man  disposed  to  compkin  of  the  coldness  of  the 
world,  you  will  find  that  he  has  never  brought  anything 
into  the  world  to  warm  it,  but  is  a  personal  lump  of  ice 
set  in  the  midst  of  it.  If  you  find  a  man  who  complains 
that  the  world  is  all  base  and  hollow,  tap  him,  and  he 
will  probably  ring  base  and  hollow.  And  so,  in  the 
other  way,  a  kind  man  will  probably  find  kindness  every- 
where about  him. 


THAT  which  positively  enriches  the  universe  is  spiritual 
life. 


IN  a  contented  disposition  there  exists  a  magic  power 
over  circumstances  which  evokes  a  hidden  beauty  from 
unlikely  things,  finds  marvellous  sweetness  in  a  crust  of 
bread,  and  hangs  bare  walls  with  shapes  of  glory.  And 
not  only  is  such  a  disposition  satisfied  with  little,  but 
under  the  chemistry  of  right  aifections  that  little  becomes 
indefinitely  expansive  and  fruitful. 


LIVING    WORDS.  117 

A  PATIENT  and  humble  temper  gathers  blessings  that 
are  marred  bj  the  peevish  and  overlooked  by  the  as- 
piring. 


WHAT  right  have  we  to  celebrate  Christmas  unless 
Christ  has  come  to  us  ?  It  is  not  a  mere  historical  event, 
but  a  spiritual  conception,  to  be  celebrated.  When  he 
comes  to  the  soul  in  spirit  and  power,  —  -when  we  feel  the 
truth  of  what  he  says  to  us,  "I  am  come  that  they  might 
have  life,  and  that  they  might  have  it  more  abundantly," 
—  then  indeed  over  the  dark  soul  there  comes  a  brightness 
greater  than  that  which  floated  in  the  night  sky  and  lit 
up  the  lonely  plains  of  Judea.  Then  indeed  we  get  the 
meaning  of  that  angelic  chorus  as  never  before :  "  Glory 
to  God  in  the  highest,  peace  on  earth,  good  will  to 
men."  Then  ring  out  the  chiming  harmonies  of  life  and 
nature.  Then  proclaim  Christmas  morning  to  the  human 
soul.  Then,  then  celebrate  with  double  joy  the  advent  of 
redemption. 


LET  us  not  fear  that  the  issues  of  natural  science  shall 
be  scepticism  or  anarchy.  Through  all  God's  works 
there  runs  a  beautiful  harmony.  The  remotest  truth  in 
his  universe  is  linked  to  that  which  lies  nearest  the 
throne. 


118  LIVING    WORDS. 

HARK  !  hark !  with  harps  of  gold, 
What  anthems  do  they  sing  ? 

The  radiant  clouds  have  backward  rolled, 
And  angels  smite  the  string. 
"  Glory  to  God  ! "  —  bright  wings 
Spread  glist'ning  and  afar, 

And  on  the  hallowed  rapture  rings 
From  circling  star  to  star. 

"Glory  to  God!"  repeat 
The  glad  earth  and  the  sea ; 

And  every  wind  and  billow  fleet 
Bears  on  the  jubilee. 
Where  Hebrew  bard  hath  sung, 
Or  Hebrew  seer  hath  trod, 

Each  holy  spot  has  found  a  tongue : 
"  Let  glory  be  to  God." 

Soft  swells  the  music  now 

Along  that  shining  choir, 
And  every  seraph  bends  his  brow 

And  breathes  above  his  lyre. 

What  words  of  heavenly  birth 

Thrill  deep  our  hearts  again, 
And  fall  like  dew-drops  to  the  earth  ? 

"  Peace  and  good- will  to  men ! " 


LIVING    WORDS.  119 

Soft !  —  yet  the  soul  is  bound 

With  rapture,  like  a  chain : 
Earth,  vocal,  -whispers  them  around, 

And  heav'n  repeats  the  strain. 

Sound,  harps,  and  hail  the  morn 

With  ev'ry  golden  string ; 
For  unto  us  this  day  is  born 

A  Saviour  and  a  King ! 


I,  FOR  one,  have  trust  in  these  two  things :  that  men 
•will  grow  better  as  they  know  more,  and  that  nothing  will 
ever  come  to  wreck  our  confidence  and  our  hope. 


LIKE  the  gush  of  the  morning  light,  truth  must  go 
forward. 


EXACTITUDE  in  science  and  reliance  upon  reason  are  to 
be  welcomed  as  evidences  of  human  progress,  whatever 
befalls. 


IT  is  as  bad  to  clip  conscience  as  to  clip  coin ;  — •  it 
is  as  bad  to  give  a  counterfeit  statement  as  a  counterfeit 
bill. 


120  LIVING    WORDS. 

IT  is  a  sublime  thing  to  see  Copernicus  toiling  without 
a  telescope,  with  instruments  of  his  own  construction, 
with  all  the  learned  in  Europe  opposed  to  him  in  theory, 
drawing  his  threads  of  argument  from  the  stars,  and 
weaving  in  tissues  of  light  his  incontrovertible  doctrine 
of  the  celestial  motions.  He  did  not  live  to  hear  the  ad- 
miration that  centuries  have  coupled  with  his  name.  But 
genius  has  its  own  reward ;  and  he,  doubtless,  felt  it,  when 
the  sun  took  its  station,  the  earth  moved  on,  and  the  array 
of  planets  marched  before  him  around  their  common 
centre. 


THE  great  mind  is  ever  humble  and  studious. 


IN  the  old  French  Revolution,  they  set  up  the  goddess 
of  reason,  and  voted  God  out  of  the  universe ;  but  God 
would  not  leave  humanity,  scoffing  at  him,  forgetting  him, 
but  stood  by  his  universe,  and  manifested  himself  in  the 
midst  of  all  their  malignity ;  and  all  the  ingenuity  of  man 
could  not  vote  him  out  of  it.  Here  is  a  sort  of  truth  that 
nothing  can  reverse.  There  is  a  God  Almighty ;  and  al- 
though men  may  wish  there  was  not  a  God,  and  try  to 
get  rid  of  one,  here  the  idea  comes  welling  up  in  the  soul, 
in  the  depth  of  his  primal  instincts,  and  men  believe  in  it 
because  they  cannot  help  it. 


LIVING    WORDS.  121 

THE  worst  effect  of  sin  is  within,  and  is  manifest  not  in 
poverty,  and  pain,  and  bodily  defacement,  but  in  the  dis- 
crowned faculties,  the  unworthy  love,  the  low  ideal,  the 
brutalized  and  enslaved  spirit. 


EVERY  phase  of  this  life  shows  that  it  is  disciplinary. 
But  for  what  is  its  discipline  ?  For  a  mortal  purpose?  — 
for  the  grave  and  annihilation  ?  Is  this  the  explanation 
of  temptation  and  sin ;  the  meaning  of  love  and  sorrow ; 
the  use  of  education ;  the  worth  of  social  affections ;  the 
end  of  virtue?  Surely  if  spiritual  existence  is  a  false- 
hood life  is  a  mystery. 


HUMAN  life,  with  its  strange  mutations  and  experiences, 
its  melancholy  and  extatic  realities,  its  shame  and  its  glory, 
its  broken  resolutions  and  its  undying  hopes,  its  close 
clinging  to  the  things  of  earth,  and  its  gravitation  to  an 
unseen  sphere,  —  what  is  it  to  the  materialist  but  a  satire 
and  deceit? 


THE  moment  you  see  through  all  God's  working,  that 
moment  his  infinity  is  lost  and  he  becomes  finite.  The 
very  conception  of  God  implies  that  he  is  a  mysterious 
worker. 

11 


122  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  stars  that  roll  in  glory  far  above  us,  and  that 
have  stood  out  so  long  upon  the  firmament,  like  figures 
on  the  dial  of  eternity,  shall  fade  and  disappear.  But 
we,  who  tremble  at  their  greatness  and  thirst  for  their 
secrets,  shall  pass  and  live  beyond  them.  Time  has  no 
mortgage  on  the  human  soul. 


WHEN  one  has  performed  a  good  act,  made  a  noble 
sacrifice,  resisted  temptation,  or  broken  up  a  bad  habit, 
nature  looks  more  pleasant  and  peaceful.  It  sheds,  as  it 
were,  a  benediction  upon  him  in  the  sunshine,  and  whis- 
pers approval  in  the  breeze.  On  the  contrary,  when  he 
has  committed  any  deed  of  shame  he  cannot  look  up  un- 
rebuked  to  the  calm  blue  sky  or  the  majestic  hills. 


IT  is  a  sublime  thing  —  danger  with  courage  —  to  see 
Socrates  take  the  hemlock  with  that  sublime  philosophy 
of  his.  But  what  is  that,  compared  with  the  words  of 
Christ  in  the  darkness  of  Gethsemane,  —  that  imploring 
cry,  "  If  it  be  thy  will,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me ;  never- 
theless, not  my  will,  but  thine  be  done  "  ? 


ANYTHING  that  is  deep  enough  to  touch  the  conscience 
is  too  deep  to  carry  Presidents  into  the  chair. 


LIVING    WORDS.  123 

To  stand  up  and  speak  God's  truth,  -whether  men  will 
hear  or  whether  they  will  forbear,  when  it  crashes  like 
thunder  and  lightning  into  cotton-bag  Christianity  and 
politics,  —  to  be  called  fanatic,  to  be  denounced  as  an  agi- 
tator, when  you  speak  God's  simple  truth  from  your  own 
conviction,  —  that  may  cost  a  man  something  more  than  a 
decent  acquiescence  in  mere  morality.  But  that  which 
Christ  requires  of  us  is  to  be,  as  well  as  to  do,  —  to  have 
in  our  hearts  the  spring  of  love,  self-sacrifice,  devotion  to 
the  right,  adherence  to  God's  will  and  God's  truth. 


EVENTS  are  only  the  shells  of  ideas ;  and  often  it  is  the 
fluent  thought  of  ages  that  is  crystalized  in  a  moment  by 
the  stroke  of  a  pen  or  the  point  of  a  bayonet. 


WE  are  conscious  of  something  within  ourselves  which 
is  not  the  body ;  —  something  that  is  more  essential  than 
the  limbs  and  organs  which  it  controls.  We  are  conscious 
of  thought,  of  affections,  of  creative  power  that  moulds 
and  uses  the  elements  about  us,  —  of  a  desire  that  reaches 
beyond  the  limits  of  this  world:  As  to  the  fact  of  a 
spiritual  existence,  then,  —  of  a  principle  of  being  involved 
in  and  acting  beyond  the  forms  of  sense,  —  we  cannot 
reasonably  doubt. 


124  LIVING    WORDS. 

LOVE  anything  if  you  want  to  comprehend  it.  You 
will  never  know  your  neighbor  or  your  dearest  friend 
until  you  love  him.  You  will  never  know  the  nature 
which  lies  behind  the  outward  aspect  of  things  —  the  core 
of  the  great  throbbing  life  of  mystery  covered  up  in  every 
clover-bud  and  glistening  in  every  star  —  until  you  love 
nature.  You  will  never  know  God  until  you  possess 
some  of  the  unselfish  love  which  Christ  exhibited,  and 
which  he  has  kindled  within  us.  Not  by  searching  can 
we  find  out  God,  but  by  becoming  can  we  find  him  out. 
Not  by  intellectual  probes  which  seek  to  penetrate  the 
mystery  of  the  universe,  not  by  our  starry  ladders  climb- 
ing through  a  million  cycles,  not  by  our  plummets  sound- 
ing the  infinite  depths,  not  by  our  microscopes  scanning 
the  minutest  forms  of  being,  not  by  all  these  can  we  find 
out  God.  They  are  only  the  vestibule  of  the  great  tem- 
ple. They  are  only  the  threshold  of  the  infinite  resi- 
dence. But  by  loving  we  pass  beyond  all  nature  and  get 
behind  all  forms,  —  go  deeper  than  the  life  of  the  material 
world,  and  come  into  contact  with  the  Infinite  Mind  and 
know  him. 


AT  the  bottom  of  a'  good  deal  of  the  bravery  that 
appears  in  the  world  there  lurks  a  miserable  cowardice. 
Men  will  face  powder  and  steel  because  they  cannot  face 
public  opinion. 


LIVING    WORDS.  125 

THE  moment  we  see  that  around  all  the  darkness 
and  uncertainty  of  this  life,  as  around  this  dark,  lower- 
ing, dim,  misty  morning  arches  the  blue  sky,  so  arches 
the  love  of  God,  and  the  brightness  of  his  majesty  breaks 
upon  us,  all  becomes  changed.  It  is  the  master-key  to 
every  riddle,  the  clue  to  every  labyrinth,  the  one  sure 
light  to  light  us  in  our  darkness. 


EVERY  great  fact  of  nature  or  society  may  be  regarded 
as  a  parable,  veiling  yet  suggesting  spiritual  realities, 
even  as  Jesus  found  the  witnesses  of  his  truth  in  the  lilies 
that  waved  in  the  field,  and  in  the  fisherman  casting  his 
net  into  the  sea. 


NATIONS,  like  individuals,  exist  for  something  beyond 
themselves.  America  is  to  do  more  than  to  develop  its 
own  magnificent  resources,  if  it  fulfils  its  legitimate  des- 
tiny. It  has  a  world's  work  to  do.  It  has  to  achieve 
the  practical  unity  of  the  human  race  by  the  elements  of 
freedom,  truth,  and  love. 


I  KNOW  a  good  many  people,  I  think,  who  are  bigots, 
ancl  who  know  they  are  bigots,  and  are  sorry  for  it,  but 
they  dare  not  be  anything  else. 
11* 


126  LIVING    WORDS, 

WHATEVER  demoralizes  the  man  and  the  citizen  —  • 
whatever  violates  the  dictates  of  conscience,  or  lowers  the 
standard  of  rectitude  in  his  soul  —  inflicts  a  more  danger- 
ous wound  upon  the  Constitution,  and  shakes  the  fabric 
of  our  nationality  more  than  any  open  treason.  Senators 
and  statesmen  do  more  damage  to  the  public  weal  by 
moral  disloyalty  and  depreciation  of  the  eternal  right  than 
they  do  good  by  Buncome  rhetoric  and  a  delirium  tremens 
of  indignant  patriotism.  The  basis  of  all  public  law  is 
private  virtue.  The  anchorage  of  our  national  Union  is 
in  personal  rectitude  and  reverence.  If  it  holds  by  any- 
thing more  shallow  than  this  it  is  unsafe ;  and  they  who 
flout  individual  conscience  and  the  moral  law  in  the  soul 
do  violence  to  the  strongest  guarantees  of  all  order  and 
all  law. 


HE  whose  will  flows  serenely  into  history,  and  who 
gives  the  coral  island  time  to  grow,  has  spread  out  this 
vast  continent  in  the  waters,  balancing  the  globe,  for  some 
great  contribution  to  the  general  plan.  If  we  are  faithful 
to  our  principles,  our  intelligence,  our  freedom,  our  true 
development  of  humanity  shall  become  the  ligatures  of 
the  world. 


IT  is  not  the  thing  we  do,  but  the  spirit  that  we  work 
in,  that  tests  our  moral  and  spiritual  condition. 


LIVING    WORDS.  127 

CHRISTIANITY  is  the  true  conserving  and  developing 
power  of  a  nation.  All  time  demonstrates  this  truth. 
What  is  the  source  of  progress  and  safety  to  a  people  ? 
Let  "  the  vocal  earth,"  let  the  graves  of  buried  nations, 
answer.  One  after  another  they  have  arisen,  —  they 
have  built  their  towers  of  strength,  and  fortified  their 
lofty  walls,  —  they  have  opened  their  sources  of  wealth, 
and  hardened  their  sinews  of  power ;  and  for  what  object  ? 
For  perpetuity  and  success.  Go  linger  around  the  deso- 
late spot  where  stood  Chaldea,  —  go  question  the  fallen 
columns  of  Tadmor,  —  go  seek  the  mystic  pyramids  of 
Egypt,  —  go  ask  the  Acropolis  or  the  Capitol ;  —  go 
speak  to  one  or  all  of  these,  and  they  will  tell  you  that 
the  hearts  which  have  withered  to  ashes  beneath  their 
ruins,  that  the  minds  which  were  their  pride  and  their 
glory,  that  the  hands  which  strengthened  their  power, 
were  all  moved  by  the  great  idea  of  adding  to  their 
prosperity  and  greatness,  and  perpetuating  their  station 
in  the  earfrh.  Surely,  then,  here  in  this  pillared  past 
we  may  ascertain  the  source  of  a  nation's  prosperity 
and  conservation ;  at  least  we  may  ascertain  what  it  is 
not. 

Is  it  wealth  ?  Where  is  Lydia  ?  Its  inhabitants  "  pos- 
sessed a  fertile  territory  and  a  profusion  of  silver."  But 
its  vast  treasures  were  no  walls  of  defence ;  the  riches  of 
Gyges  and  Croesus  were  not  its  safeguards.  It  was 


128  LIVING    WORDS. 

swept  by  the  sword  of  Cyrus,  trampled  under  foo|  by  the 
victorious  hordes  of  Persia. 

Has  intellectual  excellence  alone  secured  perpetuity 
and  progress  to  empire?  Where  is  Greece?  Its  very 
soil  is  animate  with  mind,  and  its  every  pillar,  like 
ancient  Memnon,  breathes  music  to  the  sun.  Its  mould- 
ering altars  are  garlanded  with  poetry,  and  eloquence  and 
philosophy  kindle  amid  its  desolations.  The  home  of 
Socrates  and  Plato,  Demosthenes  and  Eschylus,  Pericles 
and  Homer,  —  what  is  it  ?  Did  /its  intellectual  great- 
ness, its  glorious  poetry,  its  lofty  philosophy,  its  burning 
eloquence,  its  glowing  canvas,  its  life-like  marble  save  it 
from  the  dust  ?  Did  Spartan  heroism  gather  around  in 
the  hour  of  peril  ?  Did  Attic  genius  flash  up  from  its 
altars,  like  guardian  flame  ?  It  went  down  at  last ;  — 
the  wave  of  desolation  rolls  over  it. 

Can  paiver  insure  prosperity  and  safety  to  a  nation  ? 
Where  is  ancient  Rome?  Where  is  the  crowned  and 
imperial  city  that  sat  upon  her  seven  hills,  and  sent  her 
armies  through  the  earth?  Her  "eagle  flag  unrolled, 
and  froze  "  by  the  icy  streams  of  the  north ;  the  bones  of 
her  legions  covered  the  burning  sands  like  drifting  snow ; 
her  triumphant  shouts  pealed  up  from  the  hills  of  Gaul 
and  the  chalky  cliffs  of  Britain,  and  were  answered  by 
her  hosts  from  far  Jerusalem  and  Damascus.  Over  the 
face  of  the  known  world,  you  entered  no  walled  city 


LIVING    WORDS.  129 

where  stood  not  a  Roman  sentinel,  you  passed  no  crowd 
in  which  was  not  heard  the  Latin  tongue.  Where  is  the 
proud  city  of  the  Capitol?  Where  are  the  mailed  hand 
and  the  kingly  brow  ?  Did  her  power  start  forth  from 
the  tomb  of  Julius,  did  her  ancient  renown  appear  in  the 
person  of  Augustus,  when  the  eager  hordes  of  Goth  and 
Hun  rushed  upon  her  palaces,  quenched  the  light  on  hei 
altars,  shattered  her  glorious  marbles,  and  trampled  with 
barbaric  exultation  on  her  purple  pride  ?  Her  very  tomb 
is  crumbling  beneath  the  breath  of  time. 

I  know  that  these  references  are  trite ;  yet  would  I 
urge  you  to  seize  upon  the  deep  burden  of  their  meaning, 
to  feel  their  cogency.  They  demonstrate  that  wealth, 
knowledge,  power,  without  a  controling  influence, — 
without  a  right  motive  for  their  direction,  —  are  not  the 
sources  of  conservation  and  true  progress. 


THE  language  that  is  becoming  the  master-speech  of 
the  world ;  the  language  uttered  by  those  new-born  colo- 
nies that  are  blossoming  around  the  globe ;  the  language 
that  peals  through  speaking-trumpets  on  distant  seas,  — 
is  the  language  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence ;  and 
wherever  the  keels  of  our  commerce  cut  their  way  there 
go  the  intelligence,  the  freedom,  the  inherent  justice  of 
the  English  tongue. 


130  LIVING    WORDS. 

TAKE  the  first  line  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  drive  it  home  to  its  logical  conclusions  with  the  beetle- 
weight  of  its  moral  force,  and  how  many  institutions 
among  us  would  it  split  into  kindling-wood,  annihilate  old 
msty  forms  of  order,  and  go  through  tract  societies  as  if 
they  were  pine  stumps. 


THAT  desolate  place*  on  yonder  shore  is  not  only  an 
impressive  witness  to  Prophecy ;  it  is  itself  a  prophet  to 
other  cities.  Sitting  there,  with  its  head  cowled  by  deso- 
lation, and  its  feet  chafed  by  the  sea,  from  its  solemn  lips 
there  comes  an  appeal  to  London,  Paris,  New  York, 
warning  us  that  there  is  no  stability  in  material  greatness ; 
that  corruption  and  luxury,  however  fortified  by  power, 
however  swathed  in  splendor,  cannot  elude  the  relentless 
law ;  but  that  now,  as  ever,  God  holds  the  world  in  his 
hands,  and  his  eternal  sanctions  control  it. 


WE  move  too  much  in  platoons ;  we  march  by  sections ; 
we  do  not  live  in  our  vital  individuality  enough ;  we  are 
slaves  to  fashion,  in  mind  and  in  heart,  if  not  to  our  pas- 
sions and  appetites. 

*  Site  of  Tyre. 


LIVING    WORDS.  131 

FREEDOM  does  not  radically  consist  in  free  maxims,  in 
free  institutions,  but  in  free  men.  Those  maxims,  those 
institutions,  may  constitute  conditions  of  freedom;  they 
may  exist  as  the  frame- work  of  its  expression  and  its  de- 
velopment, but  they  derive  their  significance  and  their 
value  from  the  freedom  of  human  minds  and  human  souls. 
Alas!  we  all  know  how,  amid  prevalent  forms  of  democracy 
and  sounding  mottos  of  liberty,  there  may  exist  the  veriest 
despotism  and  the  most  abject  slavery,  —  base  standards 
of  action,  blind  party  spirit,  and  rampant  demagogueism. 
When  such  is  the  case,  of  what  avail  are  technicalities  of 
freedom  and  theories  on  parchment  ?  These  are  valuable 
only  as  they  furnish  conditions  and  inspirations  of  that 
liberty  which  consists  in  harmonious  development  and  up- 
lifting of  personal  sentiments  and  faculties.  Without 
this  all  such  forms  and  signs  of  freedom  are  but  fossil 
symbols,  in  which  the  spirit  of  past  achievement  is  petri- 
fied, and  which  lie  around  us  in  the  strata  of  tradition. 
A  declaration  of  independence  is  not  freedom ;  a  constitu- 
tion is  not  freedom;  universal  suffrage  is  not  freedom. 
The  right  to  elect  our  rulers  or  legislators,  the  right  to 
worship  according  to  the  dictates  of  our  conscience, — call 
you  this  freedom,  when  the  elector  smothers  his  conscience 
in  his  ballot,  and  the  worshiper  sacrifices  his  reason  in  his 
pew? 

THE  rebellion  of  atoms  would  be  universal  anarchy. 


132  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  great  consequences  of  life  depend  upon  the  little 
things  of  the  moment.  How  do  you  know  what  the  least 
thing  you  do  is  pregnant  with,  and  how  much  it  may 
produce  ?  You  tell  a  single  lie,  and  how  many  lies  that 
may  set  going.  It  may  be  the  spark  to  explode  a  whole 
magazine  of  lies  upon  the  community.  Just  that  one  lie 
you  have  told  may  set  fire  to  a  whole  train  of  deceit,  the 
evil  consequences  of  which  no  single  man  and  no  commu- 
nity can  limit.  Speak  one  kind  word,  and  you  do  not 
know  how  far  it  may  reach  in  its  influence.  A  man  comes 
down  town  in  the  morning,  and  all  seems  dark  to  him, 
either  because  his  mind  or  his  body  is  diseased,  or  some 
temporary  irritability  has  roused  him,  or  some  sad  news 
has  fallen  upon  him ;  he  comes  out,  at  any  rate,  with  the 
conviction  that  all  is  dark  with  him,  —  that  everything 
is  unfortunate  and  wrong.  He  meets  a  friend  who  speaks 
one  kind  word  to  him,  and  then  passes  on ;  and  as  the  sun 
sends  a  ray  of  sunshine  across  the  sky  that  was  before  dark 
and  lowering,  and  changes  the  whole  appearance  of  na- 
ture, that -one  kind  word  sends  a  ray  of  sunshine  into 
his  heart,  and  changes  the  whole  world,  and  he  does  his 
work  better  all  the  day  long  in  consequence  of  it. 


TRUTH  is  the  root,  but  human  sympathy  is  the  flower 
of  practical  life. 


LIVINa    WORDS.  133 

WHETHER  we  truly  enjoy  any  lot  in  life  depends  upon 
the  disposition  we  carry  into  it.  The  kind  of  eyes  with 
which  we  see,  the  kind  of  temper  with  which  we  act,  will 
make  much  of  little  or  little  of  much. 


EVEN  plenty  itself,  the  most  profuse  evidence  of  God, 
is  often  that  which  most  shuts  us  in  from  him.  In  the 
blasted  harvest  and  the  unfruitful  year,  perhaps,  we  fall 
upon  our  knees,  and  think  of  his  agency  who  retains  the 
shower  and  veils  the  sun.  But  when  the  wheels  of  na- 
ture roll  on  their  accustomed  course,  when  our  fields  are 
covered  with  sheaves  and  our  garners  groan  with  abun- 
dance, we  may  lift  a  transient  offering  of  gratitude ;  yet 
in  the  continuous  flow  of  prosperity  are  we  not  apt  to  re- 
fer largely  to  our  own  enterprise,  and  bless  our  "  luck?" 


No  community  is  so  safe  as  that  where  God's  attributes 
are  sovereign  in  their  essential  unity,  —  a  community 
strong  with  that  justice  which  is  the  pillar,  that  mercy 
which  is  the  glory  of  his  throne. 


THE  glory  of  revealed  religion  is  the  fact  that  it  con- 
firms the  grandest  truths  of  nature.     Christ  rested  upon 
them  as  admitted  propositions. 
12 


134  LIVING    WORDS. 

A  MAN  can  no  more  be  a  Christian  without  facing  evil 
and  conquering  it  than  he  can  be  a  soldier  without  going 
to  battle,  facing  the  cannon's  mouth,  and  encountering 
the  enemy  on  the  field. 

THE  prize  of  the  Christian  life ;  what  is  it  ?  Do  you 
think  it  is  a  heavenly  crown,  a  golden  harp,  a  white  robe, 
a  comfortable  place  in  heuven,  and  then  a  limitation? 
No ;  heaven  is  better  than  this,  —  a  higher  field  of  action 
everywhere,  broader  vision,  sweeter  and  more  glorious 
conceptions  of  God,  and  more  of  the  excellence  of  Jesus 
Christ. 


No  heart  is  so  glued  into  its  socket  that  it  does  not 
swim  in  a  little  sea  of  affection. 


How  can  we  be  forgiven  unless  we  forgive  ?  How  can 
we  have  our  sin  remitted,  sent  away,  unless  hatred,  re- 
venge, selfishness  the  root  of  all  sin,  be  removed  from  us  ? 
Is  not  the  one,  by  the  inevitable  nature  of  things,  the 
measure  of  the  other  ? 


TIIE  more  we  become  like  God  the  more  sure  y  do  we 
recognize  him,  until,  as  the  heart  grows  clear  and  calm, 
it  reflects  him  like  a  mirror. 


LIVING    WORDS.  135 

PKATER  is  natural.  Every  man  has  in  him  the  ele- 
ments of  religion ;  folded  up  it  may  be  in  secularity  and 
sin,  unheeded  and  forgotten ;  yet  at  times  —  in  some  hour 
of  silent  thought,  or  some  shock  of  Providence  —  respond- 
ing like  a  great  deep  to  the  highest  realities  of  being ;  to 
the  mysteries  of  God  and  immortality,  of  life  and  death. 
0  !  there  is  not  one  so  hard,  so  reckless,  drifted  away  so 
utterly  from  the  current  of  humanity,  as  never  to  experi- 
ence blessed  desires  and  more  than  earthly  influences. 
There  is  not  one  vfho  has  not,  at  some  period,  felt  the  im- 
pulse and  the  necessity  of  prayer,  and  lifted  up  his  cry  to 
God  as  his  helper.  But  the  wonder  is  that  these  seasons 
are  not  more  common,  more  habitual ;  that,  living  as  we 
do  in  contact  with  the  infinite  God,  wrapped  around  by 
his  almighty  Spirit,  we  should  not  feel  it  more;  that, 
considering  the  magnificence  of  the  universe  about  us,  — 
the  varying  loveliness  of  the  day,  the  rolling  splendors  of 
the  night,  —  we  should  not  gladly  seize  our  privilege  to 
pass  within  the  veil,  and  commune  face  to  face  with  the 
Being  who  made  it  all ;  that,  throbbing  with  the  conscious- 
ness of  filial  dependence,  we  should  not  lean  upon  the  arm 
of  our  everlasting  Father ;  that,  knowing  our  exposures, 
our  follies,  and  our  faults,  we  do  not  seek  the  succors  of 
his  Spirit  and  the  shield  of  his  protection ;  that,  with  no 
intervening  meditation,  no  sense  of  the  invisible  God,  we 
should  sink  to  the  embrace  of  slumber,  and  leap  into  the 
morning  light ;  making  our  homes  but  inns  of  bodily  re- 


136  LIVING    WORDS. 

fresbment,  and  all  outside  a  mart  of  worldly  care;  as 
though  life,  embosomed  as  it  is  in  wonder,  breathing  as  it 
does  with  unseen  influences,  were  but  a  flow  of  sensual 
interests,  and  "  rounded  with  a  sleep." 


No  exclusive  sphere  bounds  the  highest  privileges  of  ' 
religion.  The  qualifications  for  communion  and  intimacy 
with  God  do  not  inhere  in  those  gifts  which  are  the  en- 
dowment, and  too  often  the  pride,  of  the  few,  but  in  the 
profound  depths  of  that  nature  which  is  the  inheritance 
of  all.  And  when  we  see  the  proud  philosopher  denying 
the  reality  of  religion,  and  cavilling  at  its  truths,  let  not 
our  faith  be  shaken ;  for  his  vision,  after  all,  is  dim.  He 
only  reasons  from  what  he  perceives,  and  perceives  only 
with  the  head ;  while  thousands,  in  the  revelation  of  their 
own  experience,  know  that  which  he  repudiates.  In  the 
serenity  of  humble  trust,  in  the  transparent  depths  of 
sanctified  affection,  they  see  God. 


IN  its  highest  significance  the  material  universe  is  not 
a  collection  of  dry  facts  and  rigid  laws,  —  is  not  the  un- 
rolling of  a  gorgeous  epic  or  artistic  masterpiece ;  but  it 
is  a  temple  filled  with  God's  presence,  and  declaring  its 
final  cause  to  be  his  manifestation  and  his  praise. 


LIVING    WORDS.  137 

IN"  the  course  of  history,  those  who  have  denied  them- 
selves for  truth  and  righteousness,  those  who  have  shed 
out  their  love  like  balm,  those  who  have  stood  in  their  lot 
and  meekly  endured,  begin  to  touch  the  hearts  of  men, 
and  sway  their  souls.  As  ages  roll  on,  the  mere  splendor 
of  achievement  fades,  and  the  nature  of  the  deed  is  re- 
garded. The  tinsel  of  the  conqueror  drops  off,  and  the 
grossness  of  his  ambition,  the  blood-spots  of  violence,  and 
the  canker  of  selfishness  appear.  Yes,  as  ages  roll  on 
mankind  begin  to  recognize  their  real  benefactors  and 
the  true  heroes.  The  sweat  of  productive  toil  comes  to 
be  esteemed  more  than  princely  blood ;  and  they  who  have 
made  grass  and  corn  to  grow  than  they  whose  harvests 
of  honor  have  sprung  in  the  furrows  of  battle,  and  been 
reaped  with  sickles  of  death.  The  world's  actual  mon- 
archs  come  up  in  the  soiled  garments  of  labor,  with  their 
hands  on  the  printing-press  and  the  plough.  They  draw 
near  from  the  fields  of  exploration,  whence  they  have 
plucked  the  trophies  of  discovery  and  touched  the  mag- 
netic pulses  of  human  thought.  They  issue  from  low 
lanes  of  suffering,  followed  by  the  blessings  of  the  poor, 
and  they  control  the  affections  of  the  race  with  the  sceptre 
of  a  healing  mercy.  They  riso  from  the  red  dust  of  the 
amphitheatre,  they  leap  from  the  martyr's  fire,  and  go 
upward,  with  their  unyielded  truth,  to  shine  as  stars  for- 
ever. So  speaks  the  inevitable  law  of  events,  —  "  Fall 
12* 


138  LIVING    WORDS. 

back,  ye  glorified  Caesars  and  Napoleons! — ye  possessors 
of  a  dead  renown  and  of  a  material  good !  Give  place  in 
honor,  in  power,  in  permanent  dominion,  to  the  patient, 
the  loving,  the  faithful,  the  meek,  and  let  them  thus 
'inherit  the  earth.'  Above  all,  in  the  wreck  of  dynas- 
ties, of  institutions  of  old  violence  and  cruel  wrong,  come 
Thou  who  didst  not  strive  nor  cry,  —  who  didst  not  break 
the  bruised  reed  nor  quench  the  smoking  flax !  Come, 
pierced  and  gentle  One,  stained  not  with  the  blood  of 
others,  but  with  thine  own,  and  ascend  to  universal  do- 
minion!" 


SINCERE  desire  after  God,  and  actual  communion  with 
him,  constitute  the  real  life  of  religion. 


THAT  which  evinces  the  personal  grandeur  of  Christ  is 
not  so  much  the  gospel  he  gave  as  the  spirit  of  the  times 
which  have  succeeded  him. 


THE  thought  of  God  is  as  a  chastening  cloud,  to  qual- 
ify the  dazzling  temptations  of  prosperity ;  and  in  all  the 
night-time  of  sorrow,  and  through  the  dark  valley,  his 
presence  is  a  pillar  of  fire. 


LIVING    WORDS.  139 

GOD  is  spirit,  and  therefore  can  be  discerned  by  our 
spiritual  nature  only.  He  is  moral,  and  so  can  be  known 
only  by  moral  affinities.  He  is  love,  and  is  to  be  appre- 
hended by  deep  and  right  affections.  Therefore  the  pure 
in  heart,  and  they  alone,  see  him,  —  of  course,  not  with 
any  outward,  palpable  vision,  for  thus  is  he  apparent  to 
none,  but  with  that  true  seeing  which  consists  in.  intimate 
knowledge  and  interior  apprehension.  As  he  who  haa 
something  of  genius  in  himself  enters  into  the  spirit  of 
genius,  and  therefore  most  truly  sees  or  apprehends  it,  — 
as  we  see  our  friend,  by  intense  sympathy,  by  a  similarity 
or  a  correspondence  of  quality  on  our  own  part,  —  so  the 

pure  in  heart  see  God Sense  alone,  intellect  alone, 

cannot  discern  him.  We  must  exercise  those  affections, 
those  religious  faculties  of  our  being,  which,  forever  un- 
folding, will,  throughout  eternal  ages,  bring  us  nearer  and 
nearer  to  him.  We  must  cherish  that  love  and  that  faith 
which  will  render  this  life  sacred  and  blessed.  Then, 
even  here,  we  shall  always  stand  in  his  presence.  Then, 
everywhere  within  the  scope  of  the  sanctified  earth  and 
the  condescending  heavens  we  shall  see  God. 


WHEN  Christianity  appeared,  the  clouds  which  hovered 
over  the  spirit  of  Socrates  and  drifted  before  Plato's  vision 
broke  into  a  constellation  of  sweet  and  awful  truths. 


140  LIVING    WORDS. 

IT  takes  something  of  a  poet  to  apprehend  and  get  into 
the  depth,  the  lusciousness,  the  spiritual  life  of  a  great 
poem.  And  so  we  must  be  in  some  way  like  God  in 
order  that  we  may  see  God  as  he  is. 


THE  prime  object  of  Christianity  was,  not  to  gratify 
the  curiosity  of  man,  but  to  attract  and  sanctify  his  affec- 
tions; not  to  exercise  his  mere  reasoning  faculties,  and 

multiply  the  data  of  his  scientific  knowledge,  but  to  en- 

/ 
rich  his  soul  with  love  and  faith.     It  came  not  to  solve 

problems  in  metaphysics,  but  mysteries  in  life;  not  to 
give  sharply-defined  revelations,  but  to  clarify  the  interior 
vision  and  heave  up  the  whole  spiritual  ground- work.  It 
came  not  as  a  mere  philosophy,  to  propound  and  instruct, 
but  as  a  religion,  to  regenerate,  to  brood  over  the  solemn 
depths  and  chaotic  elements  of  our  nature,  until  it  should 
emerge  in  a  new  creation  of  harmony  and  joy,  glowing 
with  divine  beauty  and  pregnant  with  holiness.  And 
while  it  is  in  harmony  with  the  grandest  action  of  the 
intellect  —  while  in  order  to  accomplish  its  result  it  makes 
use  of  the  intellect,  and  by  that  result  the  intellect  itself 
is  quickened  and  enlarged  —  the  main  point  of  its  effort  is 
this  moral  centre,  this  lever  of  the  soul,  this  throne  and 
gateway  of  the  powers  of  life,  thronged  with  motives,  sen- 
tinelled by  passions,  and  too  often  polluted  by  sensuality 
and  sin  —  the  heart. 


LIVING    WORDS.  141 

REASON  about  it  as  we  may,  there  stands  the  ineffaceable 
fact  in  the  annals  of  the  world,  as  distinctly  marked  upon 
the  face  of  the  earth  as  the  geological  epochs  are  marked 
beneath  its  surface,  of  a  general  shifting  of  thought  and  ten- 
dency, —  a  starting  forward  of  humanity  by  a  sudden  im- 
pulse,— a  setting  in  of  a  fresh  current,  — a  voice  speaking 
far  behind  the  oracle,  —  a  strange,  glorious,  shimmering 
fire  above  the  statue,  —  the  crystalization  of  new  ideas 
around  the  abutments  of  the  old  past ;  until  at  last,  when 
the  old  inherent  vestiges  of  antiquity  crumbled  away,  there 
appeared  a  youthful  civilization  more  glorious  and  more 
vigorous  than  the  old  ever  was,  even  in  its  prime.  That 
is  simply  the  alphabet  of  history.  It  is  a  statement  of 
mere  facts,  account  for  it  as  we  will.  As  Christians,  we 
explain  this  extraordinary  revelation  by  the  fact  that  pre- 
cisely upon  the  boundary-line  between  that  ancient  and 
modern  history  we  detect  the  advent  of  the  Gospel.  We 
maintain  the  correspondence  of  these  results  to  the  im- 
pulse which  appears  in  the  life  and  teachings  of  Jesus 
Christ. 


CHRIST  could  not  have  been  our  exemplar  by  despising 
sorrow,  —  by  treating  it  with  contempt;  but  only  by 
shrinking  from  its  pain,  and  becoming  intimate  with  its 
anguish,  —  only  as  "a  man  of  sorrows,  and  acquainted 
with  grief." 


142  LIVING    WORDS. 

As  we  can  only  account  for  the  centrifugal  force  of  our 
planet  by  referring  it  to  the  primitive  impulse  imparted 
direct  from  the  hand  of  God,  so  can  we  account  for  the 
phenomena  of  Christian  civilization,  and  Christian  influ- 
ence in  the  world,  only  by  attributing  the  first  movement 
to  the  personal  action  of  Jesus  Christ. 


WHAT  we  can  do,  now  that  Christianity  has  been  illus- 
trated for  us,  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  what  we  might 
have  done  had  we  never  received  that  illustration.  Criti- 
cism performs  but  a  sorry  task,  when  it  overlooks  the  im- 
portance of  Christ's  agency,  and  speculates  upon  the 
capacity  of  other  light  than  his.  It  works  in  an  ungener- 
ous as  well  as  an  ungrateful  spirit.  It  sees  by  the  in- 
struments which  he  furnished,  and  then  boasts  its  own 
powers  of  vision.  The  great  doctrines  which  Jesus  ex- 
hibited—  those  orbs  of  truth,  and  love,  and  holiness  — 
the  philosophic  critic  reduces  to  their  primal  elements, 
and  then  boasts  how  he,  too,  could  discover  and  construct. 
As  well  say  that  in  the  nebulous  womb  of  matter  you  can 
find  every  bone  and  artery  of  a  planet,  and  draw  hence 
the  structure  of  a  harmonious  and  perfect  world. 


IT  is  not  simply  retribution  for  sin,  but  the  consequences 
of  the  nature  of  sin,  that  it  separates  us  from  God. 


LIVING    WORDS.  143 

BEFORE  the  advent  of  Jesus,  something  was  needed  by 
humanity,  and  sought  for,  which  it  could  not  obtain  itsel£ 
It  is  this  desire,  this  want,  that  sighs  wistfully  from  the 
great  heart  of  heathenism.  It  is  this  that  heaves  up  in 
broken  longings  from  among  the  symbols  of  a  declining 
worship.  It  is  this  that  clouds  with  dissatisfaction  the 
glory  of  the  oracle,  and  strips  the  veil  from  the  beautiful 
deceits  of  mythology.  It  is  this  that  breathes  in  snatches 
of  fragmentary  music,  wandering  as  if  in  search  of  the 
full  harmony.  It  was  because  of  this  that  philosophy 
struggled  but  could  not  attain,  and  the  wisest  intellects 
groped  omong  strange  splendors  and  awful  shadows.  It 
was  this  that  made  the  world  look,  at  the  time  Christ 
came,  like  a  world  in  eclipse,  an  exhausted  world,  a  world 
of  orphanage.  He  filled  a  great  want,  which  until  then 
was  unsatisfied.  JETe  realized  an  ideal,  which  until  then 
was  incomplete.  He  imparted  a  power  to  the  soul,  which 
until  then  it  did  not  possess.  And  there  is  no  reason  for 
maintaining  that  the  experience  of  the  past  would  not  be 
the  experience  of  the  present,  if  Christianity  had  not  ap- 
peared. 


IT  is  the  veiled  angel  of  sorrow  who  plucks  away  one 
thing  and  another  that  bound  us  here  in  ease  and  se- 
curity, and,  in  the  vanishing  of  these  dear  objects,  indi- 
cates the  true  home  of  our  affections  and  our  peace. 


144  LIVING    WORDS. 

X 

THE  power  by  which  Christ  wrought  in  the  world  is 
something  more  than  the  power  of  moral  precepts.  He 
uttered  truth  in  such  a  way  that  it  went  into  the  souls  of 
men.  It  flashed  upon  them  with  the  sanction  of  eternity. 
It  caused  the  great  idea  of  duty  to  rise  above  the  narrow 
and  temporary  sanctions  of  the  hour,  and  to  be  connected 
with  the  idea  of  God  and  immortality. 


CHRISTIANITY  was,  Christianity  is,  a  system  of  life 
communicated  from  God  to  the  soul  of  man,  embodied  in 
Jesus  Christ,  who  is  himself  the  essential  revelation, — who 
inspires  each  truth,  forces  home  each  moral  precept,  and 
with  his  own  personality  affirms  the  miracles.  This  is 
the  principle  which,  when  poured  into  the  hearts  of  men, 
caused  them  to  feel  that  Jesus  spake  as  never  man  spake. 
This  shifted  the  very  level  of  their  nature,  and  opened 
heights  of  divine  reality  which  they  had  never  known  be- 
fore. This  gave  them  sublime  vision.  This  transfigured 
their  personality  so  that  peasants  became  apostles,  weak 
ones  heroes,  and  lowly  ones  stood  up  undaunted  before 
priests  and  kings.  It  flashed  upon  atheistic  senses  a  rev- 
elation of  God,  new  thoughts  and  convictions  burning  into 
the  soul.  It  tore  away  the  veil  from  the  grave.  It  re- 
duced and  diminished  earthly  things,  and  it  expanded 
heaven. 


LIVING    WORDS.  145 

IT  is  the  wonder  of  almost  every  word  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament that  it  carries  live  truth,  just  as  a  live  coal  carries 
fire,  and  carries  this  truth  through  all  ages  and  all  times ; 
that  it  is  just  as  applicable  to  one  man  in  his  condition  as 
to  another  man  in  a  very  different  condition, — to  the  man 
in  the  nineteenth  century  as  to  the  man  in  the  first  cen- 
tury. 


TAKE  away  the  personal  Christ  from  the  gospels,  leav- 
ing the  same  precepts  and  doctrines,  and  the  whole  aspect 
of  Christianity  would  change,  as  the  aspect  of  the  earth 
changes  when  the  sun  goes  down.  The  same  eternal 
mountains  lift  their  heads  to  heaven ;  the  same  rivers  flow 
onward.  But  their  animation  is  gone ;  they  are  cold,  and 
gray,  and  dark.  Thus  would  Christianity  be  without 
that  central  personage,  around  which  all  its  glories  clus- 
ter, —  from  which  they  stream. 


IT  is  not  said  "  Blessed  are  they  that  mourn,  because 
they  mourn,  but  because  they  shall  be  comforted. 
Mourning  is  consecrated  as  leading  to  higher  and  pro- 
founder  joy.  And  in  the  general  spirit  of  true  religion 
we  find  no  encouragement  for  fixed  melancholy  or  ascetic- 
ism, but  a  disposition  which  throws  over  life  and  the  uni- 
verse a  tempered  yet  serene  and  cheering  light. 
13 


146  LIVING    WORDS. 

TO-DAT  the  Christian  world  presents  the  spectacle 
of  a  grand  and  glorious  unity.  The  most  diverse 
forms  of  faith  and  ceremony,  gliding  in  opposite  spheres 
of  thought,  and  moving  in  the  most  eccentric  orbits  of 
opinion,  are  illuminated  with  the  glory  of  one  great 
event,  and  gravitate  to  a  common  centre.  The  church- 
bells  of  innumerable  sects  are  all  chime-bells,  to-day, 
ringing  in  sweet  accordance  throughout  many  lands, 
and  awaking  a  great  joy  in  the  heart  of  our  common 
humanity.  The  hard,  cold  winter  season  grows  genial, 
as  though  the  world  in  its  frosty  veins  felt  the  warmer 
quickening  of  that  'glad  mysterious  hour  when  the 
infant  Christ  was  borne  upon  its  bosom.  His  advent 
reflects  its  gladness  and  its  glory  upon  the  hour.  It 
is  a  time  for  the  sympathies  of  a  common  faith,  for  the 
feeling  of  a  common  humanity ;  it  is  a  time  for  sectarian 
differences  to  melt  away  in  these  grand  fundamentals, 
upon  which  the  broadest  church  confessedly  stands. 
Nay,  even  international  asperities  may  grow  calm  upon 
this  beautiful  Christmas  Sabbath,*  and  this  political 
storm,  so  harshly  rising,  may  lull  for  the  while,  and  give 
place  to  the  sweet,  soothing  zephyrs  playing  alike  through 
the  forests  of  Maine  and  the  pines  of  Carolina,  and  pro- 
claiming a  union  stronger  than  constitutional  compacts, 
and  broader  than  national  lines. 

*  1859. 


LIVING    WOUDS.  147 

THERE  is  but  a  slight  difference  between  the  man  who 
may  be  said  to  know  nothing  and  him  who  thinks  he 
knows  everything. 


WHAT  mean  the  discipline  and  trial  of  life?  What 
mean  the  dark  shocks  of  disappointment,  the  breaking  of 
hopes,  the  sundering  of  human  ties,  the  terrible  baptism 
of  suffering  and  of  fire,  if  there  is  not  something  beyond  ? 
If  in  every  bath  of  sweat  and  tears,  every  drop  of  sorrow, 
every  falling  wave,  there  is  something  by  which  I  am  led 
more  near  to  God,  by  which  my  soul  is  made  stronger 
and  purified,  then  I  can  understand  life.  But  if  I  am 
hurled  in  the  chaos  of  life,  —  battered  by  sorrow  to-day, 
and  kicked  by  misfortune  to-morrow,  —  stricken  by  my 
fondest  hopes,  deluded  and  deceived,  and  all  is  to  end  in 
nothingness,  I  must  confess  that  you  present  a  problem  I 
cannot  solve. 


HE  who  cannot  retire  within  himself,  and  find  his  best 
resources  there,  is  fitted,  perhaps,  for  the  smoother  pas- 
sages of  life,  but  poorly  prepared  for  all  life.  He  who 
cannot  and  dare  not  turn  away  from  outward  engrossments, 
and  be  in  spiritual  solitude,  who  is  afraid  or  sickens  at  the 
idea  of  being  alone,  has  a  brittle  possession  in  all  that 
happiness  which  comes  from  the  whirl,  and  dance,  and  sur- 
face of  things.  One  hour  may  scatter  it  forever. 


148  LIVING     WORDS. 

THERE  is  efficacy  in  disappointment  or  adversity,  when 
it  occurs  as  a  foil  to  our  plans ;  when  it  breaks  in  upon 
the  tenor  of  our  days  as  a  counter  experience ;  when  it 
darkens  the  summer  sky  of  life  with  the  suggestion  of 
higher  and  profounder  realities ;  when  the  soul  is  loosened 
from  its  fancied  security  in  earthly  good,  and  sent  in 
search  of  substantial  rest;  and  the  glittering  forms  of 
things  that  seemed  so  compact  and  solid  at  the  going  down 
of  the  sun,  as  they  stand  up  in  relief  amidst  the  infinite 
spaces  of  being  and  the  night-like  glories  of  eternity,  fade 
and  look  empty.  And  it  is  in  trial  —  it  is  in  poverty, 
pain,  and  persecution  —  that  the  strength  of  the  human 
spirit  is  tested,  and  its  energies  summoned  forth,  as  all 
our  physical  power  is  challenged  when  thrown  among  the 
crests  and  hollows  of  the  sea  ;  and  one  strikes  out  with  a 
bold  vigor  when  thus  overwhelmed  who  before  could  not 
swim  a  stroke.  Often  a  great  sorrow  rushing  over  the 
soul  like  a  freshet  has  swept  away  its  upper-soil,  and  laid 
bare  unsuspected  treasures.  Thus  has  adversity  stung 
the  sluggish  man  to  enterprise.  Thus  has  obloquy  roused 
the  timid  to  courage.  Thus  has  the  uncouth  nature  grown 
beautiful  with  sympathy  and  fidelity.  Thus  has  woman 
risen  from  her  drooping  reliance  to  a  heroic  strength,  and 
covered  her  breast  with  a  mailed  fortitude.  The  brilliant 
beauty  that  only  kindled  passion  has  been  transcended  by 
a  loveliness  shining  out  from  her  deeper  nature  in  linea- 
ments of  patience,  fidelity,  and  affection.  That  which 


LIVING    WORDS.  149 

flickered  only  as  a  coquettish  light  in  the  saloon  and  the 
boudoir  steadies  itself  into  a  pure  and  holy  flame,  —  a 
taper  for  the  sick-bed  vigil,  a  lamp  for  the  dungeon's 
gloom. 

So  in  sorrow  and  in  suffering  are  hidden  the  springs  of 
a  peace  and  a  power  that  can  be  affected  by  no  outward 
storms.  It  is  a  great  thing,  when  one  has  grown  strong 
through  that  trial  which  melts  away  the  dross  and  proves 
the  true  gold ;  when,  being  driven  to  the  handling  of 
many  expedients,  he  has  been  trained  to  detect  all  coun- 
terfeit comforts,  and  to  discriminate  between  unsubstantial 
good  and  that  which  abides  every  test;  when  he  has 
learned  to  dispense  with  all  outward  props,  can  let  riches, 
honors,  health  drop  away  from  him,  and  yet  feel  that  all 
this  does  not  touch  his  real  life ;  while  above  these  coils 
of  uncertainty  and  mutation  he  lifts  his  naked  person- 
ality erect  in  its  own  spiritual  resources.  Surely,  pros- 
perity has  never  generated  such  depths  of  power,  such 
intrinsic  and  full  consolation. 


THE  great  test  which  proves  the  excellence  of  the 
religion  of  Christ  is  its  adaptation  to  man  in  solitude; 
because  it  is  then  that  he  is  thrown  upon  the  re- 
sources of  his  own  soul,  —  upon  his  inner  and  everlasting 
life. 

13* 


150  LIVING    WORDS. 

SORROW  as  illustrated  in  Christ's  life,  and  as  inter- 
preted in  his  scheme  of  religion,  has  assumed  a  new 
aspect,  and  yields  a  new  meaning.  Its  garments  of 
heaviness  have  become  transfigured  to  robes  of  light,  its 
crown  of  thorns  to  a  diadem  of  glory ;  and  often  for  some 
one  whom  the  rich  and  joyful  of  this  world  pity,  —  some 
suffering,  struggling,  overshadowed  soul,  —  comes  there  a 
voice  from  heaven,  "  This  is  my  beloved  son,  in  whom  I 
am  well  pleased." 


CHRISTIANITY  is  revealed  to  us  in  the  form  that  walked 
the  streets  of  Jerusalem  and  the  shores  of  the  Galilean 
lake ;  that  bent  over  the  sick  couch  and  the  bier ;  mingled 
in  the  festival  of  Cana,  and  reclined  at  the  Last  Supper ; 
stood  in  serene  dignity  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Pilate, 
and  bore  a  cross  up  the  way  of  sorrow ;  and  hung  and 
prayed  upon  the  accursed  wood,  and  came  forth  radiant 
from  the  sleep  of  death  and  the  broken  chambers  of  the 
sepulchre. 


WHEN  men,  instead  of  being  anchored  by  the  head, 
drift  by  the  heart,  we  may  believe  that  they  are  moved 
by  some  deep  current  of  religious  feeling,  which  is  better 
than  a  shallow  surface  of  conformity  or  a  dead  calm  of 
acquiescence. 


LIVING    WORDS.  151 

IF  one's  conscience  be  dead  as  a  stone  it  is  as  heavy 
too.  In  such  a  case  there  would  be  a  consciousness  of 
being  unconscious,  —  a  sense  of  life  in  death. 


A  PERJURED  spirit  continually  feels  its  false  oath 
hurled  back  upon  it  from  heaven ;  fraud  spoils  the  taste 
of  luxury,  and  makes  ill-gotten  wealth  a  cankering  chain  ; 
.  murder  always  hears  its  brother's  blood  crying  from  the 
ground,  making  the  crowd  more  solitary  than  a  wilderness, 
and  the  desert  more  populous  than  a  city,  while  sometimes 
that  pale  face  hangs  in  the  sunniest  prospects  by  day,  and 
that  awful  memory  breeds  a  fountain  of  stark  and  ghastly 
dreams  by  night.  These  men,  all  unwhipped  of  human 
justice  as  they  may  be,  in  the  heavy  consciousness  of  sin 
hear  thunders  more  deep  than  the  sentence  of  its  judg- 
ment-seat, and  are  girt  with  a  burning  cincture  more  ter- 
rible than  its  punishment. 


THE  great  cheat  and  delusion  set  before  every  genera- 
tion is  simply  this  tradition,  that  there  is  anything  like 
real  substantial  pleasure  in  sin. 


I  DO  not  know  a  more  dreadful  thing  than  at  a  time  of 
trouble  going  out  and  calling  in  God  as  a  stranger. 


152  LIVING    WORDS. 

RELIGION  is  rich  with  glad  influences ;  for  it  is  a  prin- 
ciple infinitely  varied,  —  it  presides  over  the  different 
phases  of  human  life,  and  sanctions  and  hallows  them  all. 
Religion  forbids  folly,  forbids  excess,  forbids  an  empty, 
frivolous  living,  —  and  who  wishes  to  live  so  ?  Religion 
bids  us  have  a  time  for  all  things,  and  wisely  live  for  a 
higher  and  purer  destiny  than  any  of  this  earth.  It  bids 
us  not  be  profane,  or  indolent,  or  licentious,  or  wasteful. 
Who  wishes  to  be  so  ?  But  it  does  not  strip  us  of  one , 
true  joy ;  —  it  forbids  not  one  innocent  amusement 


A  COMMUNITY  wrapped  up  in  secularity  and  sin,  with 
all  its  gay  variety  and  all  its  bustle,  regarded  by  a  vision 
of  spiritual  discernment,  seems  dead  and  desolate.  Yes, 
those  diligent  forms  appear  as  lifeless  as  the  embalmed 
nations  who  people  the  catacombs  of  Thebes ;  and  the  ap- 
peals of  religion,  the  incentives  to  higher  life,  the  moving 
presence  of  God,  is  as  unfelt  amid  this  waste  of  worldli- 
ness  as  the  wind  that  sighs  over  the  unconscious  sands  of 
the  desert. 


THERE  must  be  something  beyond  man  in  this  world. 
Even  on  attaining  to  his  highest  possibilities,  he  is  like  a 
bird  beating  against  his  cage.  There  is  something  be- 
yond, 0  deathless  soul,  like  a  sea-shell,  moaning  for  the 
bosom  of  the  ocean  to  which  you  belong ! 


LIVING    WORDS.  153 

WE  have  a  moral  authentication  of  God  in  our  own 
souls,  answering  to  the  image  that  comes  to  us  in  Jesus 
Christ. 


CHRISTIANITY  gives  us  no  hint  that  evil  is  only  ap- ' 
parent, — the  reverse  side  of  a  fact  the  obverse  of  which  is 
good,  —  the  unsubstantial  shadow  of  a  blessed  purpose, 
hideous  to  our  limited  vision,  but  beautiful  in  the  all-com- 
prehending sight  of  God.  This  idea,  therefore,  at  the 
strongest,  is  but  a  surmise,  and,  as  I  think,  it  is  not  a  rea- 
sonable surmise.  I  cannot  believe  there  is  any  such  ob- 
lique puzzle  in  the  universe  as  that  sin  is  one  thing  to 
man,  and  another  in  the  sight  of  God ;  that  as  it  revolves 
through  the  depths  of  our  consciousness  it  is  wrong,  but 
as  it  turns  in  the  light  of  hia  omniscience  it  is  right. 


TOUCH  a  man's  heart,  and  you  lay  hold  of  the  helm 
that  steers  him ;  you  reach  a  power  that  lies  deeper  than 
appearances,  and  behind  reason.  Thence  proceed  the 
shapings  of  circumstance,  the  interpretations  of  outward 
existence,  and  the  interior  scenery  of  the  soul ;  for  "  out 
of  the  heart  are  the  issues  of  life." 


A  LIE  is  black,  whiten  it  as  you  will. 


154  LIVING     WORDS. 

How  and  what  is  that  power  that  works  in  the  shooting 
of  a  crystal,  and  binds  the  obedience  of  a  star ;  that  shim- 
mers in  the  northern  aurora,  and  connects  by  its  attrac- 
tions the  aggregated  universe ;  that  by  its  unseen  forces 
holds  the  little  compass  to  the  north,  blooms  in  the  nebula 
and  the  flower,  weaves  the  garment  of  earth  and  the  veil 
of  heaven,  darts  out  in  lightning,  spins  the  calm  motion  of 
the  planets,  and  presides  mysteriously  over  all  motion  and 
all  life  ?  And  what  is  life,  and  what  is  death,  and  what 
a  thousand  things  that  we  touch,  and  experience,  and 
think  we  know  all  about  ?  0  !  as  science  and  nature 
open  upon  us,  we  find  mystery  after  mystery,  and  the 
demand  upon  the  human  soul  is  for  faith,  —  faith  in  high, 
yea,  in  spiritual  realities ;  and  this  materialism  that  would 
shut  us  in  to  death  and  sense,  that  denies  all  spirit  and  all 
miracle,  is  shattered  like  a  crystal  sphere,  and  the  soul 
rushes  out  into  wide  orbits  and  infinite  revolutions,  —  into 
life,  and  light,  and  power,  that  are  of  eternity,  that  are 
of  God! 


THE  alphabet,  to  the  little  child,  is  as  the  nebula  to  the 
philosopher.  They  both  answer  the  great  end  of  stimu- 
lating curiosity ;  and  when  the  soul  penetrates  one  secret 
it  passes  with  additional  power  to  the  solution  of  a  higher, 
—  all  the  while  receiving  into  itself  a  golden  residuum,  a 
permanent  virtue,  which  is  the  best  and  final  result. 


LIVING    WORDS.  155 

THE  mere  a  priori  assertion  of  impossibility,  by  a  little 
creature  who  with  all  his  philosophy  cannot  look  much 
beyond  the  planet  Jupiter,  and  who  with  all  his  sounding 
lines  cannot  reach  the  centre  of  the  earth,  that  God 
Almighty,  who  spins  these  burning  wheels  at  night,  could 
not,  with  all  his  wisdom  and  power,  heal  the  sick  and 
raise  the  dead,  would  be  simply  ludicrous,  if  it  did  not  in 
fact  produce  such  serious  scepticism. 


HE  who  will  be  serious  in  the  work  of  spiritual  disci- 
pline, who  will  act  from  a  vital  law  of  duty,  must  endure 
struggles  and  conflicts  than  which  there  is  nothing  more 
solemn  under  the  sun. 


JOHN  HANCOCK,  when  the  Council  met  in  Boston,  in 
the  stormy  days  of  the  Revolution,  and  talked  of  letting 
the  British  into  the  city,  though  he  owned,  probably,  more 
property  than  any  other  man  in  Boston,  said,  "Burn 
Boston,  and  make  John  Hancock  a  beggar,  if  the  public 
good  requires  it"  We  like  to  hear  such  things ;  but  why 
don't  men  say,  "  Burn  the  richest  treasure  I  have  got,  if 
it  corrupts  my  soul.  Burn  down  the  pinnacles  of  my 
pride,  my  worldly  interest,  if  they  stand  in  the  way  of 
my  attainment,  and  fulfilment  of  the  great  pattern  which 
has  been  shown  me  in  the  mount?" 


156  LIVING    WORDS. 

GOD,  spirit,  immortality,  instead  of  being  inconsistent 
with  what  we  know,  are  what  we  might  most  legitimately 
deduce  from  it,  —  what  we  might  expect  from  the  light 
that  trembles  behind  that  curtain  of  mystery  which  bounds 
all  our  sensuous  knowledge. 


MYSTERIES  are  all  about  ns,  but  faith  sees  light  beyond 
and  around  them  all.  Have  you  recently  laid  down  the 
dead  in  their  place  of  rest  ?  Cold  and  crushing,  then,  is 
that  feeling  of  vacancy,  that  dreary  sense  of  loss,  that 
rushes  upon  you,  as  you  look  through  the  desolate  cham- 
bers without,  through  the  desolate  chambers  of  the  heart 
within.  But  will  not  He  who  calls  out  from  the  very 
dust  where  your  sleepers  lie  the  flowers  of  summer,  and 
who  in  the  snows  that  enwrap  their  bed  cherishes  the 
germs  of  the  glorious  spring-time,  —  will  not  He  who 
works  out  this  beautiful  mystery  in  nature  bring  life  from 
the  tomb  and  light  out  of  darkness  ? 


THERE  is  a  spiritual  region  in  and  above  the  nature 
of  every  man,  where  belong  the  primal  patterns  of 
things,  whence  come  the  strongest  inspirations,  and  which 
more  or  less  completely  casts  the  mould  of  our  conduct 
and  character. 


LIVING     WORDS.  157 

ALL  natural  results  are  spontaneous.  The  diamond 
sparkles  without  effort,  and  the  flowers  open  impulsively 
beneath  the  summer  rain.  And  true  religion  is  a  spon- 
taneous thing,  —  as  natural  as  it  is  to  weep,  to  love,  or  to 
rejoice.  No  stiff,  cumbrous,  artificial  form  can  be  substi- 
tuted for  it.  The  soul  that  possesses  it  breathes  it  out  in 
good  words  and  good  deeds  from  a  natural  impulse.  It 
rises  to  God  in  devotion,  it  flows  out  to  man  in  kindness, 
as  naturally  as  the  dew-drop  rises  to  the  sun,  or  the  river 
rushes  to  the  sea.  It  acts  not  from  mere  interest  or  fear. 
It  is  seraphic  exaltation  of  being,  throbbing  in  harmony 
with  the  will  of  God,  from  which. right  action  follows  as  a 
matter  of  course.  As  God  does  good  because  he  is  good, 
so  does  the  truly  religious"  soul. 


HE  who  trusts  in  the  word  of  God  knows  that  he  will 
find  nothing  in  the  material  universe  but  the  will  of  God. 


THINK  for  a  moment  of  the  great  agents  and  engines 
of  our  civilization,  and  then  think  what  shadowy  ideas 
they  all  once  were.  The  wheels  of  the  steamship  turned 
as  swiftly  as  they  do  now,  but  as  silent  and  unsubstantial 
as  the  motions  of  the  inventor's  thought ;  and  in  the  noise- 
less loom  of  his  meditation  were  woven  the  sinews  of  the 
printing-press,  whose  thunder  shakes  the  world. 
14 


158  LIVING    WORDS. 

WHAT  a  power  has  the  mind  evinced  in  astronomy !  Its 
vision  extends  into  future  ages,  before  -which  the  years  of 
the  earth  dwindle  to  nothing.  Its  calculations  arc  prophe- 
cies. It  makes  a  chronometer  of  the  sun,  an  index  of  the 
comet.  It  sets  the  long  marches  of  eternity  to  the  chime 
of  the  morning  stars.  What  is  this  power  ?  Does  it  per- 
ish with  the  body  that  engirts  it  ?  ....  It  cannot  be. 
Mind  is  deathless. 


Is  it  possible  that  man,  who  has  been  led  forward  from 
age  to  age  through  a  splendid  succession  of  achievements, 
until  he  has  transformed  this  material  world  and  made  it 
an  instrument  of  power, — strung  the  lightning,  and  made 
it  work  for  him,  —  rode  on  wheels  of  thunder,  with  ban- 
ners of  flame ;  —  is  it  possible  that  man,  working  upward 
from  this  ideal,  is  simply  a  clod  upon  the  earth  ?  The 
moment  you  think  of  this  power  to  control  and  master 
material  things  you  fall  back  upon  the  consciousness  that 
you  have  a  soul,  and  that  there  is  more  evidence  than  you 
have  supposed  of  its  existence.  In  fact  there  is  more 
proof  of  a  soul  than  of  a  body.  When  a  man  asks  me 
what  proof  I  have  of  a  soul,  I  reply  by  asking  him,  What 
proof  have  you  of  a  body  ?  You  have  more  logical  diffi- 
culty to  prove  an  outward  world  than  a  soul.  Spiritual 
consciousness,  mounting  aspiration,  ideal  influences  have 
controlled  you  all  through  life. 


LIVING    WORDS.  159 

IF  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  —  the  worthies  of  old 
—  cluster  on  the  heavenly  hills ;  if  Moses  wears  a  glory 
more  celestial  than  that  which  he  bore  from  the  awful 
mount ;  if  Elijah  is  clothed  with  a  radiance  brighter  than 
the  wheels  of  his  fiery  chariot;  if  Stephen's  face  still 
shines  like  an  angel's,  but  is  mingled  now  with  no  hue  of 
death ;  if  all  these  are  existent  yet  —  because  God  is  not  a 
God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living  —  let  us  feel  that  even 
the  least  find  a  home  somewhere  in  the  hospitable  uni- 
verse, and  in  the  sustaining  omnipresence  of  the  Father. 


THE  eye  would  be  useless  in  total  darkness,  and  the 
light  would  be  insignificant  if  it  struck  upon  a  sightless 
world.  There  is  more  expressive  evidence  of  design,  then, 
in  the  reciprocal  fitness  than  in  the  intrinsic  arrangements 
of  each. 


THERE  is  no  night  in  heaven,  —  shall  endless  night 
brood  over  any  part  of  this  great  universe  ?  0  !  will  it 
not  be  that  in  the  end  there  shall  be  no  night  at  all  ?  — 
no  night  for  us,  —  no  night  for  those  we  love,  —  the  wan- 
dering and  the  lost  ?  How  bright  is  such  an  anticipation ! 
From  every  world  that  rolls  sweet  music  gushing  out,  — 
on  every  crystal  wall  white  robes  and  starry  crowns ;  and 
over  every  radiant  isle  and  every  glassy  sea  —  over  all  the 
boundless  universe  —  no  night ! 


160  LIVING    WORDS. 

| 
MEN  constitute  eras.     Washington  himself  was  the 

embodiment  of  the  Revolution,  and  may  fitly  personate  to 
other  men  and  other  ages  the  principles  of  that  movement. 
But  let  not  even  the  greatness  of  Washington  overshadow 
the  merits  of  the  least  of  those  who  labored  and  sacrificed  in 
that  early  struggle.  They  come  up  before  us  to-day  from 
many  a  battle-ground,  from  many  a  post  of  duty ;  from 
the  perilous  enterprise  and  the  lonely  night-watch  !  The 
pageant  of  this  hour  sinks  from  my  sight.  This  temple 
of  industry,*  with  all  its  symbols  of  civilization,  dissolves 
into  thin  air.  These  tokens  of  a  great  and  prosperous 
people  pass  away.  This  magnificent  city  dwindles  to  a 
provincial  town.  I  am  standing  now  upon  some  village- 
green,  on  an  early  summer  morning,  when  the  dew  is  on 
the  grass,  and  the  sun  just  tips  the  hills.  I  see  before  me 
a  little  band  clothed  in  the  garb  that  is  now  so  venerable. 
There  are  the  cocked-hat,  the  continental  coat,  the  well- 
worn  musket.  They  have  turned  away  from  their  homes ; 
they  have  turned  from  the  fields  of  their  toil ;  they  have 
heard  the  great  call  of  freedom  and  of  duty,  and  before 
God  and  man  they  are  ready.  Hark  !  it  is  the  tap  of  a 
drum,  and  they  move  forward  to  the  momentous  issue. 
That  drum-beat  echoes  around  the  world !  That  move- 
ment was  the  march  of  an  irresistible  idea,  —  the  idea  of 


*  Crystal  Palace,  July  4th. 


LIVING    WORDS.  161 

the  spiritual  worth  and  the  inalienable  rights  of  every 
man,  out  of  which  grow  the  stability  of  the  nation  and 
the  unity  of  the  world. 


WE  cannot  consider  nature  as  meant  merely  for  secu- 
lar uses.  It  contains  something  that  we  cannot  wholly 
employ  in  eating,  or  sleeping,  or  travelling,  or  making 
money.  We  can  wield  the  sunbeam  and  harness  the 
lightning;  but  there  are  powers,  sights,  and  sounds  in 
the  glorious  world  about  us  which  we  cannot  break  into 
our  daily  work,  or  bend  to  our  sensuous  necessities.  Nor 
is  nature  fully  explained  in  scientific  statements.  All 
its  expression  is  not  exhausted  upon  the  intellect.  It 
fulfils  a  higher  office  than  that  of  teaching  us  geometry, 
or  astronomy,  or  geology.  These  truths  themselves  have 
an  end  higher  than  their  scientific  significance.  Nature 
teaches  us  religious  truth,  it  enriches  us  with  larger 
spiritual  life,  it  kindles  in  us  the  fire  of  devotion,  it  ex- 
alts us  to  the  idea  of  immortality,  it  draws  us  into  com- 
munion with  God. 


I  THINK  it  would  be  easier  to  toss  a  Pope's  bull  into  the 
fire,  to  face  a  whole  diet,  to  steer  a  ship  into  wide  soli- 
tudes, than  it  is  to  do  the  little  work  or  duty  which 
presses  every  moment  upon  the  will,  and  the  pressure  of 
which  no  eye  recognizes  but  that  of  God. 
14* 


162  LIVING    WORDS. 


THE  cross  of  Christ !  There  centre  our  hopes,  there 
die  our  fears,  there  fall  our  sins,  there  gushes  our  peni- 
tence, there  beams  the  light  of  blessed  assurance  upon  our 
tears. 


RELIGION  is  the  most  substantial  thing  in  the  world ; 
it  can  take  more  hard  knocks  than  anything  else.  Geol- 
ogy has  jammed  great  boulders  against  it,  and  it  is  not 
even  scratched ;  astronomy  has  assailed  it,  yet  amid  the 
bright  spheres  of  heaven  it  lifts  its  glorious  head.  It  has 
stood  all  the  wear  and  tear  of  all  sciences  and  all  discus- 
sion ;  it  is  the  most  substantial  thing  you  can  think  of;  it 
is  the  most  robust  thing  in  existence.  Do  not  think  you 
can  hurt  it  by  taking  it  into  your  work-shop.  Let  it  out 
of  your  close  pocket ;  it  will  suffer  there.  The  only  thing 
that  religion  dreads  is  lack  of  room,  lack  of  freedom,  lack 
of  breath.  Take  it  out  of  your  pocket  and  bring  it  into 
everything.  Do  not  fear  that  it  will  desecrate  religion  to 
bring  it  in  contact  with  the  world.  It  will  consecrate  the 
world ;  it  will  consecrate  every  deed  and  every  act,  and 
make  them  glorious. 


CHRIST  has  triumphed  over  sin,  and  sorrow,  and 
death.  Crown  him  with  thorns,  then  !  —  they  are  the 
fittest  emblems  of  those  evils  which  he  has  made  his 
trophies. 


LIVING    WORDS.  163 


Music,  sculpture,  poetry,  painting,  —  these  are  glorious 
works ;  but  the  soul  that  creates  them  is  more  glorious 
than  they.  The  music  shall  die  on  the  passing  wind, 
the  poem  may  be  lost  in  the  confusion  of  tongues,  the 
marble  will  crumble  and  the  canvas  will  fade,  while  the 
soul  shall  be  quenchless  and  strong,  filled  with  a  nobler 
melody,  kindling  with  loftier  themes,  projecting  images 
of  unearthly  beauty,  and  drinking  from  springs  of  im- 
perishable life. 


SHOULD  the  world  be  shattered  upon  its  golden  axle, 
we  cannot  get  beyond  the  mercy  and  the  compassion 
of  God.  Should  this  crystal  habitation  dissolve,  God's 
nature  will  remain  the  same. 


THE  stars  are  beautiful ;  many  and  deep 
Are  the  wonderful  mysteries  that  they  keep. 
Through  the  out-spread  space  they  shine  and  roll, 
Like  solemn  thoughts  o'er  a  prophet's  soul. 
They  speak  of  peace  to  heart-strings  crushed ; 
Faith  looks  to  them  and  its  doubts  are  hushed ; 
They  glide  and  they  shine  to  the  spirit's  eye 
As  things  untarnished,  and  bright,  and  high ; 
And  it  yearneth  and  hopeth  from  them  to  soar 
When  it  looks  through  these  fleshly  bars  no  more. 


164  LIVING    WORDS. 

GENIUS  holds  its  universal  dominion  because  it  touches 
the  deepest  suggestions  and  utters  the  multiform  experi- 
ences of  a  common  nature. 


CHRIST  is  the  essence  of  all  law,  and  -when  we  have  his 
spirit  there  is  no  trouble  about  the  penalties  of  the  law. 


LET  science  extend  the  domain  of  actual  knowledge, 
and  lay  bare  as  it  may  the  secrets  of  the  material  world. 
It  only  exposes  more  and  more  the  proportions  of  the 
great  cathedral,  and  shows  us  the  lamps  of  God's  glory, 
and  the  infinite  recesses  of  his  love.  It  only  wafts  us  on 
through  the  ever-rolling  harmonies  of  the  universe,  until 
we  pause  before  that  awful  veil  of  mystery  in  which  he 
hides  the  essence  of  his  being  and  the  counsels  of  hia 
thought. 


is  not  an  end,  but  a  transition-crisis.  All  the 
forms  of  decay  are  but  masks  of  regeneration,  —  the 
secret  alembics  of  vitality. 


EVERY  duty  is  great ;  great,  because  it  tries  our  prin- 
ciple ;  great,  because  for  the  time  being  it  tries  our  loyalty 
to  conscience,  and  our  energy  and  will. 


LIVING    WORDS.  165 

THE  sacred  rights  of  citizenship  belong  to  every  man 
not  because  of  the  height  of  his  station  or  the  weight  of 
his  purse,  but  by  virtue  of  his  intrinsic  manhood. 


WHAT  is  it  we  need  to  preach  but  this :  that  for  you, 
afar  off,  cast  away,  alienated,  bruised,  scarred  by  your 
sins,  God  is  a  father?  For  it  is  an  eternal  fact,  not 
a  shifting  relation,  not  a  relationship  created  by  your 
faith  or  obedience,  but  an  eternal  fact  revealed  through 
Jesus  Christ.  We  are  like  passengers  in  a  tempestuous 
gale.  Every  object  we  trusted  is  shifting  before  our  eyes, 
and  sometimes  the  waters  surge  over  our  souls.  We  need 
something  to  take  hold  of  that  shall  be  fixed  and  firm 
when  the  world  reels  and  our  hearts  grow  faint.  What 
is  that  but  the  assurance  of  this  truth  declared  by  Him 
who  came  from  the  bosom  of  the  Father  to  make  it 
known? 


A  GREAT  many  men  —  some  comparatively  small  men 
now  —  if  put  in  the  right  position,  would  be  Luthers  and 
Columbuses. 


THE  desire  of  man  in  all  ages  for  God  —  the  longing 
and  seeking  after  God  —  is  proof  of  the  reasonableness 
of  some  kind  of  revelation  of  God  to  man. 


166  LIVING    WORDS. 

WHEN  I  go  with  Christ  to  Calvary  and  hear  his  dying 
prayer,  his  mighty  yielding  up  of  the  ghost,  I  am  con- 
strained to  say,  "  Truly,  this  was  the  Son  of  God."  And 
when  I  tread  with  him  the  rocky  pavement  of  the  sepul- 
chre, and  feel  the  thrill  of  his  rising,  and  hear  the  rush 
of  angels'  wings  go  by  me,  and  he  stands  upon  his  grave- 
clothes,  not  all  the  light  that  breaks  through  the  unsealed 
tomb  can  dissipate  my  awe.  But  when  I  pause  with  him 
before  Jerusalem,  and  see  his  full,  fast  tears,  and  hear 
him  weep  by  the  grave  of  Lazarus,  I  feel  that  he  was  a 
tender,  loving  being,  sympathizing  with  humanity,  and 
know  it  is  the  "  Son  of  Man "  whom  I  am  called  to 
love. 


COULD  the  universe  be  seen  in  its  fulness,  it  would 
not  contradict  the  perfect  fabric  of  the  gospel.  No 
light  from  any  reservoir  of  creation  shall  eclipse  the 
radiance  of  the  Cross,  but  will  make  it  stand  out  in 
more  glorious  relief,  and  crown  it  with  a  diviner  lustre. 


WELL  will  it  be  for  us  if,  witnessing  the  greatness  of 
the  work  that  God  has  wrought  without  us,  we  realize 
the  greatness  of  the  work  that  Christ  accomplishes  within 
us,  and  feel  that  we  carry  in  our  own  souls  the  sublimest 
creation  of  the  Eternal,  a  universe  more  permanent  and 
precious  than  worlds 


LIVING    WORDS.  167 

THE  soul  which  fathoms  every  league  of  the  celestial 
arc,  —  knows,  as  a  mariner  the  sea,  the  distant  latitudes 
\vhere  comets  flame,  and  worlds  career,  and  constellations 
shake  their  awful  clusters,  —  wanders  amid  the  spectral 
nebula,  and  makes  suns  and  systems  to  be  but  glittering 
beads  upon  the  aspiring  thread  of  its  induction,  cannot 
perish.  There  is  a  future  life.  In  a  universe  so  spheri- 
cal and  whole  as  this,  reason  argues  that  its  own  incom- 
pleteness and  capacity  for  more  are  suggestive,  —  are 
prophetical.  Under-shadows  and  cross-lights  of  mystery, 
these  filmy  depths  of  present  being,  shudder  in  sympathy 
with  something  beyond. 


FASHION  is  the  science  of  appearances,  and  it  inspires 
one  with  the  desire  to  seem  rather  than  to  be. 


THE  beast  is  to-day  as  he  was  in  the  herds  of  the  Chal- 
dean and  the  Jew.  The  ant,  though  it  teaches  us  with 
the  same  rebuke  as  in  the  days  of  Solomon,  knows  no 
more,  does  no  more.  The  bird  of  the  air  beats  the  same 
trackless  path,  directed  by  the  all-guiding  hand.  But 
to  man  God  has  appointed  a  different  destiny,  and  made 
him  peculiar  by  the  gift  of  an  inspiration,  compared  with 
which  the  glories  of  the  outward  universe  are  dim  and 
perishable. 


168  LIVING    WORDS. 

« 

THE  fact  which  startles  and  contradicts  the  faith  of  one 
man  will  fall  into  beautiful  harmony  with  the  convictions 

of  another,  because  of  his  wider  and   profounder  per- 
ception. 


THE  origin  of  evil  may  puzzle  us  — :  its  use  no  Chris- 
tian can  deny When  we  take  the  Christian  view 

of  life  we  discover  that  not  happiness  merely,  but  virtue, 
holiness,  is  the  great  end  of  man;  though  happiness 
comes  in  as  an  inevitable  consequence  and  accompaniment 
of  this  result.  And  in  the  light  reflected  from  this  view 
evil  assumes  a  powerful,  and  I  may  say  a  most  beautiful 
office.  It  is  just  as  necessary  for  the  attainment  of  virtue 
as  prosperity  or  any  blessing.  Nay,  in  this  aspect  it  is 
itself  a  great  blessing,  and  , 

"  Every  cloud  that  spreads  above, 
And  veileth  love,  itself  is  love." 

It  is  evident  that  without  the  contact  of  sin  and  the 
pressure  of  temptation  there  might  be  innocence,  but  not 
virtue.  Equally  evident  does  it  seem  that  without  an 
acquaintance  with  grief  there  would  be  but  little  of  that 
uplifting  tendency,  that  softening  of  the  heart,  and  sanc- 
tifying of  the  affections  which  fit  us  for  the  dissolution  of 
our  earthly  ties,  and  for  the  communions  of  the  spiritual 
world. 


LIVING    WORDS.  169 

IT  is  a  striking  truth  that  while  the  intellect  has 
cavilled  and  rejected,  no  one  ever  approached  the  gospel 
from  the  moral  side  who  did  not  find  it  satisfactory,  and 
instantly,  though  increasingly,  apprehend  its  impregnable 
evidences. 


FROM  the  background  of  pain  and  sorrow  often  break 
out  the  noblest  and  most  winning  manifestations  of 
humanity.  The  depth  of  human  sympathy,  the  wealth 
of  its  love,  is  displayed  in  scenes  of  tribulation  and  need. 
The  robes  of  charity  show  their  whiteness  amid  the  gloom 
of  poverty  and  distress.  Christ-like  patience  is  born  of 
suffering,  the  soul  shines  out  in  its  essential  splendor 
through  the  medium  of  bodily  anguish,  and  faith  trims 
her  lamp  in  the  shadow  of  the  grave.  Shall  we  call  this 
existence  a  trivial  thing,  whose  very  miseries  are  the  oc- 
casions of  the  noblest  triumphs,  whose  trials  may  be  con- 
verted into  divine  strength,  whose  tears  may  change  into 
celestial  dew,  and  nourish  flowers  of  immortal  hope  ? 


NATURE  is  incomplete  in  its  expression  without  Chris- 
tianity. The  revelations  of  the  material  universe  melt 
into  shadow,  and  a  nebula  of  mystery  hangs  around  them 
all.  They  suggest  more  than  they  can  answer.  Chris- 
tianity fulfils  that  "  elder  Scripture."  It  is  the  Apoca- 
lypse to  its  Genesis. 
15 


170  LIVING!    WORDS. 

IT  is  not  necessary  to  darken  the  present  in  order  to 
enhance  the  excellence  of  the  future ;  and  a  true  spiritual 
diligence  will  best  be  quickened  by  considering  the  pres- 
ent as  part  of  the  future. 


THERE  is  no  reason  for  maintaining  that  the  experience 
of  the  past  would  not  be  the  experience  of  the  present  if 

Christianity  had  not  appeared If  intellect  and 

affection,  if  intuition  and  sentiment  could  have  achieved 
this  profound  moral  life,  and  this  firm,  transcendant  faith, 
why  did  they  not  do  so  before  Christ  ?  Were  there  not 
then  as  noble  hearts  and  as  colossal  intellects  as  now  ? 
Did  not  these  intuitions  work  as  curiously,  did  not  reason 
seek  as  ardently  for  truth  ?  Did  not  the  moral  nature 
gravitate  as  spontaneously  towards  an  ideal  virtue  ?  Did 
not  Love  mourn  as  tenderly  over  the  graves  of  the  dead  ? 
If,  then,  this  high  faith,  this  spiritual  life,  are  merely 
natural  developments,  why  not  known  before  ? 


IN  his  lowest  estate  man  is  compelled  to  be  a  seeker ; 
but  then  he  easily  finds  what  he  seeks.  In  a  higher 
condition  he  cuts  loose  from  all  his  former  trust,  and 
demands  truth  so  broad  and  deep  that  Christ  alone  can 
fill  it. 


LIVING    WORDS.  171 

MIGHTY  has  been  the  antagonism  in  the  world  between 
Christ's  spirit  of  mercy  and  man's  spirit  of  selfishness. 
Where  the  one  has  gone  abroad  as  an  iron  force,  the 
other  has  proceeded  as  a  moral  power.  Where  the  one 
has  swept  like  the  tempest,  the  other  has  followed  like 
the  summer  dawn.  Where  the  one  has  embattled  armed 
legions,  the  other  has  sent  teachers  of  truth,  missionaries 
of  peace,  and  sisters  of  charity.  Where  the  one  has 
bleached  the  earth  with  human  bones,  the  other  has 
clothed  it  with  shining  harvests.  Where  the  one  haa 

reared  shambles  of  lust  and  marts  of  mammon,  the  other 

& 

has  built  asylums  and  hospitals  and  opened  countless 
channels  of  benevolence.  Where  the  one  has  blotted 
heaven  with  the  smoke  of  worldliness,  and  shut  us  in  with 
walls  of  materialism,  the  other  has  revealed  the  starry 
prospect  of  immortality.  Where  the  one  has  degraded 
man,  nourished  scepticism,  and  engendered  despair,  the 
other  has  kindled  in  the  soul  a  consciousness  of  its  des- 
tiny, and  poured  the  great  influences  of  redemption. 


IN  the  religious  view,  all  things  stream  from  God's 
throne,  and  whatever  sky  hangs  over  them  the  infinite 
one  is  present;  prosperity  is  the  sunshine  that  he  has 
sent,  and  Faith  as  she  weeps,  beholds  a  rainbow  on  the 
cloud. 


172  LIVING    WOKDS. 

THE  Christian  result  in  the  soul  of  man  is,  that  he 
shall  be  enabled  to  do  what  he  likes.  It  is  so  because 
the  spirit  of  the  Lord  in  the  heart  of  a  man  makes  him 
like  to  do  God's  will 


A  SHARP  disappointment  will  suddenly  drive  us  to 
God.  The  mariner  of  life  sails  unthinking  over  its 
prosperous  seas,  but  a  flaw  of  storm  will  bring  him  to  his 
prayers. 

• 

WHEN  intellect  attempts  to  define  and  grasp  God  it 
thereby  gets  confused.  It  darkens  and  does  not  reveal. 
It  gives  us  riddles,  not  revelations.  The  pure  heart 
alone  lies  like  a  mirror,  and  reflects  God  just  as  the  still 
lake  reflects  the  starry  heavens. 


THE  great  end  of  being  is  not  fulfilled  in  any  new  rou- 
tine of  obedience.  The  spirit  of  duty  is  greater  than 
any  form  of  duty,  and  there  should  be  no  limit  to  moral 
effort,  as  there  is  none  to  moral  attainment 


THE  mechanism  of  the  state  is  not  merely  for  classes, 
or  for  property,  but  for  the  great  interests  of  the  whole, 
and  the  true  interests  of  the  individual.- 


LIVING    WORDS.  173 

0,  IP  there  were  a  real  freedom,  that  comes  from  the 
doing  of  God's  will  in  this  land,  how  the  dry  bones  would 
begin  to  shake,  how  corrupt  institutions  would  begin  to 
tremble,  how  the  chains  would  snap,  how  the  abomina- 
tions that  make  us  a  hissing  and  a  by- word  would  pass 
away !  For  where  -the  spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is 
liberty,  and  not  merely  Fourth-of-July  talk  about  it. 


LIBERTY  is  an  old  fact.  It  has  had  its  heroes  and  its 
martyrs  in  almost  every  age.  As  I  look  back  through  the 
vista  of  centuries,  I  can  see  no  end  of  the  ranks  of  those 
who  have  toiled  and  suffered  in  its  cause,  and  who  wear 
upon  their  breasts  its  stars  of  the  legion  of  honor. 


WE  are  never  to  rest.  There  is  to  be  no  point  in  our 
spiritual  career  where  we  can  touch  our  aphelion,  and 
henceforward  revolve  in  a  fixed  circle.  There  is  to  be 
no  time  when  we  are  to  aspire  no  more,  and  to  attempt 
nothing  greater. 


THE  conservative  may  clamor  against  reform,  but  he 
might  as  well  clamor  against  the  centrifugal  force.     He 
sighs  for  the  "  good  old  times," — he  might  as  well  wish 
the  oak  back  into  the  acorn. 
15* 


174  LIVING    WORDS. 

VIRTUE,  morality,  religion  —  by  -whatever  term  we  may 
call  it  —  is  not  a  set  of  regulations,  but  a  constant  growth 
and  aspiration,  an  increasing  assimilation  to  God,  a  har- 
monious condition  of  the  soul,  when  it  hangs  selfrbalanced 
in  holiness  and  love,  and  independent  of  all  sanctions  but 
such  as  inhere  in  these.  • 


MUNIFICENT  nature  follows  the  methods  of  the  divine 
and  true,  and  rounds  all  things  to  her  perfect  law.  While 
nations  are  convulsed  with  blood  and  violence,  how  quietly 
the  grass  grows ;  and  God  now  sees  the  earth  tending 
constantly  in  one  direction,  —  growing  truer  and  better, 
—  a  minim  in  his  universe,  driving  on  its  point  of  melody 
to  swell  the  chorus  of  his  majestic  theme. 


THE  enormous  sun  is  adjusted  to  the  weed  by  the  wall, 
and  the  little  leaf  has  sympathies  with  Sirius. 


As  art  is  a  true  expression  of  the  soul's  ideal,  let  us 
compare  the  loftiest  exhibition  of  character  that  appears 
in  a  Grecian  statue  with  the  best  that  speaks  from  the 
marble  of  Angelo  or  the  canvas  of  Raphael,  and  we  shall 
see  how  striking  is  the  demand  which  heathen  virtue 
makes  for  Christianity. 


LIVING    WORDS.  175 

CHRISTIANITY  is,  in  society,  like  that  agency  in  the 
physical  world  which  drives  suns  and  systems  on  their 
tremendous  track,  yet  binds  them  in  glittering  harmony, 
holds  them  to  a  central  order,  fills  them  with  joyful  life, 
and  illuminates  them  with  universal  beauty. 


OPINION,   so  far  as  it  is  a  matter  of*the  intellect, 
cannot  justly  be  charged  with  the  sins  of  the  heart. 


THE  poor  shall  love  the  poet,  —  the  blessed,  pious 
poor,  —  the  sick  heart  shall  feel  a  new  pulse  when  he 
breathes,  and  the  noble  yet  scorned  mind  shall  know  that 
there  is  a  kindred  spirit  in  the  world ;  the  universal  soul 
is  moved,  the  sensualist  gives  signs  of  life,  the  mourner 
dries  his  tears,  the  bowed  serf  takes  courage  and  looks 
forward,  the  hoary  sinner  trembles  or  melts,  old  error 
appears  bald  and  hideous,  tyrants  shake,  thrones  totter, 
fetters  snap  asunder,  and  the  whole  mass  of  humanity  is 
stirred,  as  the  waters  are  stirred  by  the  rushing  of  a  swift 
wind. 


THE  best  kind  of  a  pic-nic  is  a  pick  at  Old  Nick,  and 
if  he  sticks  up  his  head  in  the  shape  of  a  rum-cask  or 
slavery  I  go  for  a  crack  at  it. 


176  LIVING    WORDS. 

THERE  is  one  great  distinction  between  the  productions 
of  Heathen  and  of  Christian  art.  While  the  first  exhibits 
the  perfection  of  physical  form  and  of  intellectual  beauty, 
the  latter  expresses  also  the  majesty  of  sorrow,  the  grand- 
cur  of  endurance,  the  idea  of  triumph  refined  from  agony. 
In  all  those  shapes  of  old  there  is  nothing  like  the  glory 
of  the  martyr,  the  sublimity  of  patience  and  resignation, 
the  dignity  of  the  thorn-crowned  Jesus. 

It  is  easy  to  account  for  this.  In  that  Heathen  age  the 
soul  had  received  no  higher  inspiration.  It  was  only  after 
the  advent  of  Christ  that  men  realized  the  greatness  of 
sorrow  and  endurance.  It  was  not  until  the  history  of 
the  Garden,  the  Judgment-hall,  and  the  Cross  had  been 
developed,  that  genius  caught  nobler  conceptions  of  the 
beautiful.  This  fact  is,  therefore,  a  powerful  witness  to 
the  truth  of  Christianity.  Christ's  personality,  as  delin- 
eated in  the  gospels,  is  not  only  demonstrated  by  a  change 
of  dynasties,  —  an  entire  new  movement  in  the  world,  —  a 
breaking  up  of  its  ancient  order;  but  the  moral  ideal  which 
now  leads  human  action,  which  has  wrought  this  en- 
thusiasm, and  propelled  man  thus  strangely  forward,  has 
entered  the  subjective  realities  of  the  soul,  breathed  a  new 
inspiration  upon  it,  opened  up  to  it  a  new  conception; 
and  lo !  the  statue  dilates  with  a  diviner  expression,  — 
lo  !  the  picture  wears  a  more  lustrous  and  spiritual  beauty. 
Christ,  then,  has  verily  lived ;  for  his  image  has  been  re- 


LIVING    WORDS.  177 

fleeted  in  the  minds  of  men,  and  has  fastened  itself  there 
among  their  most  intimate  and  vivid  conceptions. 


POETRY  is  the  utterance  of  truth  —  deep,  heartfelt 
truth.     The"  true  poet  is  very  near  the  oracle. 


IF  a  railroad  company  is  too  poor  to  pay  for  engines 
and  for  iron  let  it  stop.  If  it  does  not  every  consecutive 
bar  of  iron  is  a  consecutive  deceit,  and  every  old,  leaky, 
dilapidated,  dislocated,  asthmatic  locomotive  is  a  clattering 
falsehood. 


A  MAN  who  is  simply  living  by  what  we  call  a  system 
of  good  habits,  —  a  habit  of  temberance,  a  habit  of  chas- 
tity, a  habit  of  economy,  a  habit  of  prudence, —  has  to 
steady  them  every  time  he  goes  down  hill,  for  fear  they 
will  fall  off,  and  push  them  every  time  he  goes  up  hill. 
But  when  a  man  has  a  love  of  God,  and  Christ,  and 
goodness,  there  is  no  more  danger  of  these  falling  off  and 
breaking,  than  of  a  man's  organism  falling  to  pieces.  It 
becomes  a  vital  element  of  his  being,  —  a  central  spring, 
compact  and  consistent  with  the  whole  of  his  nature. 
And  if  occasionally  such  a  man  does  break  out,  here  and 
there,  in  a  fault  or  in  a  folly,  he  has  within  him  that 
which  rallies  him  to  act  and  overcome  it. 


178  LIVING    WORDS. 

WE  can  imagine  a  world  in  which  there  is  no  work. 
A  world  bathed  in  incessant  summer,  whose  seed-times 
and  harvests  are  ever  mingling,  whose  springing  influ- 
ences perpetually  ascend,  whose  fruitage  perpetually  rip- 
ens through  all  the  procession  of  its  golden  year.  A 
world  in  which  man  would  never  feel  the  sting  of  want, 
and  where  the  felicities  of  being  would  unfold  without  his 
effort.  But  we  cannot  conceive  any  such  world,  connected 
with  human  peculiarities  and  necessities,  one  half,  one 
tithe  so  glorious  as  our  old  world  of  struggle  and  of 
labor.  For  wherever  God  has  admitted  man's  agency 
the  noblest  results,  the  achievements  of  real  worth  and 
splendor  are  the  fruits  of  patient  and  sinewy  toil.  They 
have  come  from  the  suggestions  of  want  and  the  problems 
of  difficulty  ;  they  have  been  won  in  wrestling  with  the 
elements ;  they  have  been  torn  from  the  womb  of  nature. 
Labor,  with  its  coarse  raiment  and  its  bare  right  arm,  has 
gone  forth  in  the  earth,  achieving  the  truest  conquests 
and  rearing  the  most  durable  monuments.  It  has  opened 
the  domain  of  matter  and  the  empire  of  mind.  The 
wild  beast  has  fled  before  it,  and  the  wilderness  has 
fallen  back.  The  rock  at  its  touch  has  grown  plastic, 
and  the  stream  obsequious.  It  has  tilled  the  soil  and 
planted  cities.  Discovery  accompanies  it  with  its  com- 
pass and  telescope.  Invention  proclaims  it  with  its  press, 
and  herald^  it  through  the  earth  with  its  flaming  chariot. 


LIVING     WORDS.  179 

It  is  enriched  with  "  the  wealth  of  nations."  It  is 
crowned  with  the  trophies  of  intellect.  Its  music  rises 
in  the  shout  of  the  mariner,  the  song  of  the  husbandman, 
the  hum  of  multitudes.  It  rings  in  the  din  of  hammers 
and  the  roar  of  wheels.  Its  triumphal  march  is  the  pro- 
gress of  civilization.  There  are  lands  of  luxurious  climate 
and  almost  spontaneous  production ;  yet  who  looks  there 
for  freedom  and  virtue,  —  for  the  bravest  hearts  and  the 
noblest  souls?  But  the  elements  of  liberty,  the  glories 
of  intelligence,  the  sanctities  of  home,  and  the  institutions 
of  religion  abide  in  sterner  soil  and  beneath  colder  skies, 
—  where  the  fisherman  feels  his  way  through  the  mist 
that  wraps  €  the  iron  sea-coast,  and  the  reaper  snatches  his 
harvest  from  the  skirts  of  winter.  And  who  would  not 
pray,  "Give  us  the  manly  nerve,  the  strenuous  will,  and 
the  busy  thought,  rather  than  golden  placers  and  diamond 
mines  "  ?  And  instead  of  a  realm  sick  with  spontaneous 
plenty  and  desolate  with  riches,  who  would  not  prefer  the 
granite  fields  that  grudge  their  latent  bounty,  since  they 
induce  not  only  the  exertions  but  the  blessings  of  toil  ? 


THE  world  is  the  great  place  for  us  to  work  in,  and 
there  is  work  a  plenty  for  us  to  do.  Any  man  who  does 
not  believe  this  ought  to  be  shut  up  in  a  glass  jar,  and 
made  to  suck  God's  atmosphere  through  a  straw. 


180  JIVING    WORDS. 

THE  brightest  crowns  that  are  worn  in  heaven  have 
been  tried,  and  smelted,  and  polished,  and  glorified  through 
the  furnace  of  tribulation. 


IF  the  poor  man's  earthly  lot  is  hard,  it  makes  more 
welcome  the  suggestions  of  heaven.  The  strictures  of 
necessity,  the  sharp  mockeries  of  disappointment  fill  him 
with  a  sense  of  dependence,  and  put  his  soul  in  a  position 
to  wait  upon  God.  He  has  his  peculiar  temptations  ;  yet 
so  long  as  they  do  not  pin  him  down  and  imprison  him 
they  do  not  cause  him  to  become  fascinate4  with  the 
world.  His  upward  escape  from  it  is  easier  than  for  the 
rich  man.  Eternal  splendors  stream  clearer  through  the 
rents  in  his  earthly  fortune,  and  divine  visitants  have  a 
readier  access  to  him.  His  wealthy  brother  is  shut  in 
with  comfort,  and  forms  of  luxurious  obeisance  stand 
around  his  bed.  But  what  though  his  couch  be  the  bare 
earth,  and  his  canopy  the  sky?  the  more  immediately 
is  he  enfolded  by  the  sanctities  that  environ  our  mortal 
lot.  His  stony  pillow  may  become,  like  Jacob's,  the  foot 
of  a  celestial  ladder,  —  the  landing-place  of  angels. 


THE  angels  may  have  wider  spheres  of  action,  may 
have  nobler  forms  of  duty.  But  right  with  them  and 
with  us  is  one  and  the  same  thing. 


LIVING    WORDS.  181 

THE  man  of  principle  needs  not  the  restrictions  of  seal 
sr  signature,  or  any  legal  instrument.  He  deals  in  soli- 
tude as  in  public,  at  midnight  as  in  the  sunshine.  His 
aeart  is  the  throne  of  honor,  and  his  brow  the  witness  of 
manly  integrity.  His  grasped  hand  is  as  good  as  a  bond, 
and  his  promise  as  sterling  gold.  The  complicated  inter- 
ests of  men,  which  so  often  jar  and  conflict,  are  reconciled 
in  him  with  a  beautiful  harmony.  He  is  himself  the  em- 
bodiment of  justice,  the  symbol  of  a  perfect  society 

His  charities  are  not  the  droppings  of  a  formal  pity,  but 

the  ointment  of  a  yearning  love In  his  soul  there 

is  a  fountain  of  humor,  and,  close  by,  a  fountain  of  tears. 
His  spirit  is  an  instrument  strung  to  every  proper  mood, 
touched  by  the  light  graces  of  the  passing  hour,  or  swept 
by  "solemn  thoughts  that  wander  through  eternity." 


TEMPTATION  cannot  exist  without  the  concurrence  of 

inclination  and  opportunity A  man  may  spurn  evil 

suggestions  ninety-nine  times,  and  yield  upon  the  hun- 
dredth, because  that  jumps  exactly  with  his  inclination. 


WE  make  for  ourselves  the  essential  character  of  the 
conditions  in  which  we  are  placed.     All  that  is  of  real 
moment  in  our  life,  all  that  is  enduring,  we  carry  with  us 
—  we  carry  in  us. 
16 


182  LIVING    WORDS. 

THAT  pool  of  loathsome  intemperance  has  been  fed  by 
rills  trickling  fromh  eights  of  respectability  and  through 
marble  aqueducts  of  fashion.  Those  faces,  pale,  dis- 
torted, furious,  tossed  about  in  that  dark  sea  of  slime 
and  fire,  look  upward  and  catch  a  reflection  that  plays 
through  the  prism  of  cut-glass  decanters  and  the  colors 
of  champagne  and  cogniac. 


THE  place  in  which  a  man  stands,  and  the  work  he  is 
called  upon  to  do,  is  secondary  to  the  spirit  in  which  he 
works,  and  the  result  that  abides  after  it.  These  matters 
that  are  talked  about  so  much  in  the  world,  —  these  dif- 
ferent sorts  of  position  or  occupation,  —  what  transparent 
wrappages,  what  cases  of  colored  glass,  what  temporary 
frameworks  are  they  all,  inside  which  plays  the  essential 
mechanism  of  our  manhood,  involving  the  same  responsi- 
bilities and  working  under  the  same  relentless  laws! 
This  soot  and  blaze,  this  aristocratic  splendor  and  vulgar 
grime,  are  but  the  varying  processes  and  shifting  tints  of 
that  great  chemistry  in  which  the  common  humanity  is 
tried  out  and  refined.  God  weighs  the  fine  gold,  and  it 
will  be  fine  gold  forever,  whether  set  in  a  coronet  or  ham- 
mered out  in  the  coarsest  drudgery  of  life. 


EACH  age  holds  the  contents  of  all  other  ages. 


LIVING    WORDS.  183 

THE  atmosphere  in  which  a  man  lives  he  inevitably 
imparts.  There  are  some  people  who  come  upon  you  like 
a  fog-bank  driven  by  the  east  wind  off  from  an  iceberg, 
that  chills  you  all  through.  There  are  others  that  make 
you  happy  in  their  presence  always.  They  are  like 
fruits  and  flowers,  and  they  retain  their  fragrance  and 
aroma,  0,  how  long  !  They  send  it  out  to  us  continually 
from  their  hearts  and  lives.  Men  are  moving  zones ;  the 
climate  in  some  seems  to  be  frigid  ;  come  very  near  them, 
and  very  likely  it  will  make  you  shudder.  Other  men 
are  like  the  tropical  heats  in  the  South,  —  they  always 
consume  us.  Others  are  calm  and  temperate,  and  like 
the  still  influences  of  our  northern  spring,  or  like  the 
solemn  midnight. 


THE  Uncreated  is  illustrated  in  all  his  creation.  That 
which  makes  the  perpetual  noon  of  heaven  shines  in 
every  ray  of  earth.  That  which  belongs  to  the  infinite 
spirit  is  reflected  in  the  soul  of  man. 


A  TRANSCENDENT  faith,  a  cheerful  trust  turns  the 
darkness  of  night  into  a  pillar  of  fire,  and  the  cloud  by 
day  into  a  perpetual  glory.  They  who  thus  march  on 
are  refreshed  even  in  the  wilderness,  and  hear  streams  of 
gladness  trickling  among  the  rocks. 


184  LIVING    WORDS. 

MOCKERY  never  degrades  the  just.  The  good  cannot 
be  shamed.  The  arrows  of  persecution,  the  sharp  mis- 
siles of  scorn  glance  from  them  harmless ;  more  than  this, 
they  illustrate  their  virtue.  Though  it  be  not  true  that 
the  man  makes  the  circumstances,  it  is  true  that  the  man 
gives  character  to  the  circumstances.  The  strong  level 
all  obstacles  to  their  purpose.  In  trial,  the  good  shine 
with  a  refined  lustre.  Wealth,  nor  power,  nor  adulation 
can  ennoble  the  mean.  But  the  righteous  turn  ignominy 
into  glory.  They  do  not  create,  but  they  command.  By 
a  virtue  that  is  in  them  they  subdue  all  accidents  into 
tone  and  keeping  with  themselves.  Character  is  greater 
than  circumstances,  and  may  get  the  mastery  over  them. 
The  trial  of  our  Saviour  illustrates  this  truth.  Never  did 
malignant  hatred  and  heartless  cruelty  accumulate  upon 
their  victim  grosser  insignia  of  punishment  and  scorn. 
They  scourged  him,  they  buffeted  him,  they  spit  upon 
him ;  but  this  was  not  enough.  In  order  to  connect  the 
idea  of  his  sovereignty  with  the  meanest  ridicule  they 
tore  off  his  garments,  threw  around  his  bleeding  shoulders 
a  purple  robe,  placed  in  his  hand  as  a  sceptre  a  miserable 
reed,  and  platting  a  crown  of  thorns  crowded  it,  with  its 
rankling  points,  upon  his  head,  and  then,  with  mock 
humility  and  spiteful  grimace,  did  homage  to  him.  But 
though  all  this  was  meant  to  deride  him  never  did  he 
seem  more  truly  a  king.  We  shudder,  but  it  is  at  the 
sacrilegious  spirit  of  his  persecutors !  We  weep  —  it  is 


LIVING    WORDS.  185 

because  that  brow  of  love  is  lacerated  by  cruel  thornes  ! 
But  not  for  an  instant  does  Jesus  seem  to  us  debased  or 
contemptible.  Vilely  arrayed  as  he  is,  he  stands  there 
amid  that  brutal  soldiery,  amid  the  malignity  that  peers 
upon  him,  a  serene  and  holy  CHARACTER,  and  everything 
feels  its  influence.  .  .  .  The  more  they  seek  to  debase 
him  the  more  majestic  he  appears.  To  those  mock  em- 
blems of  sovereignty  his  pure  life  imparts  a  royal  lustre. 
They  degrade  not  him,  but  he  ennobles  them.  He  comes 
forth  wearing  a  crown  of  thorns.  To  us  it  is  the  same  as 
if  he  wore  a  diadem. 


OUT  of  suffering  have  emerged  the  strongest  souls ;  the 
most  massive  characters  are  seamed  with  scars ;  martyrs 
have  put  on  their  coronation-robes  glittering  with  fire, 
and  through  their  tears  have  the  sorrowful  first  seen  the 
gates  of  heaven. 


ALL  that  affliction  of  the  darkest  kind  ever  can  work 
to  the  true  soul  is  to  awaken  it  up  to  spiritual  things,  to 
open  the  clear  eye,  to  make  the  spiritual  reality  the  more 
real.  If  you  rightly  comprehend  it  it  only  strikes  that 
which  is  round  about  you,  it  only  removes  that  which  is 
outward  and  physical,  but  it  leaves  you  all  the  same  a 
greater  and  a  better  man  fur  your  trial. 
16* 


180  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  shadow  of  death  is  around  you,  0  bereaved 
mother !  and  its  cold  desolation  has  come  between  you 
and  your  child.  You  take  the  little  hand,  and  it  lies 
heavy  in  your  own ;  you  press  the  lips,  and  they  quiver 
with  no  response ;  and  you  must  put  away  in  the  grave 
the  form  that  has  nestled  close  to  your  heart,  and  the 
head  that  you  have  crowned  with  a  thousand  prayers  and 
hopes.  And  you  cannot  see  why  we  exist  at  all,  —  why 
such  tender  relationships  are  y/oven  to  be  shattered,  and 
such  deep  wells  of  love  opened  in  the  human  breast  only 
to  overflow  with  tears.  Ah !  it  is  because  humanity  is 
not  an  earthly  flower,  to  unfold  in  bright  air  and  then 
perish  forever  ;  but  an  undying  germ,  to  struggle  upward 
out  of  limitation,  and  find  surer  root  as  its  props  break 
away,  and  to  be  refined  by  tears,  and  to  shed  rich  frag- 
rance in  the  night-time  of  sorrow,  and  to  glow  with  a' 
more  intense  and  fixed  love  as  its  objects  vanish  from 
sight.  If  life  is  but  a  form  your  affliction  is  inexplicable ; 
but  if  it  is  substance  —  if  it  is  intrinsic  and  inalienable 
power,  excellence,  beauty  —  then  the  bliss  of  the  suffer- 
ing and  the  peace  of  the  poor,  and  the  victory  of  martyrs, 
and  all  the  fine  gold  of  character  that  has  been  smelted  in 
the  furnace  of  trial,  illustrate  and  vindicate  the  purpose 
of  our  being.  There  is  something  for  man  better  than 
happiness,  else  he  might  have  lived  and  perished  as  the 
lily  of  the  field.  There  is  spiritual  strength  for  him, 
which  is  developed  by  struggling ;  there  is  faith  whose 


LIVING    WORDS.  187 

telescope  sweeps  the  immensities  of  eternity  when  the 
nearer  earth  is  veiled  in  darkness ;  there  is  trust  which 
springs  up  in  the  shattering  o£  all  earthly  supports ;  and 
there  is  that  completeness  and  harmony  and  divine  assim- 
ilation of  character  which  is  wrought  out  only  by  disci- 
pline. 

NOT  in  the  achievement,  but  in  the  endurance  of  the 
human  soul,  does  it  show  its  divine  grandeur  and  its  alli- 
ance with  the  infinite  God. 


WE  are  in  a  condition  of  life  or  death  not  merely  as 
we  do  or  do  not  this  or  that  good  act,  but  according  as 
we  are  or  are  not  in  ourselves,  essentially  good. 


TRIBULATION  will  not  hurt  you  unless  it  does  —  what, 
alas!  it  too  often  does  —  unless  it  hardens  you,  and 
makes  you  sour,  and  narrow,  and  sceptical. 


As  the  eye  is  fitted  to  the  light,  as  the  ear  to  sound, 
so  the  human  soul  is  fitted  to  the  apprehension  of  spirit- 
ual realities;  and  it  does  apprehend  these  realities, 
through  the  veils  of  the  visible  detecting  the  things  that 
are  invisible. 


188  LIVING    WO'RDS. 

THE  foundations  of  many  a  cause  now  strong   and 
flourishing  were  laid  in  tears  and  blood. 


ALL  things  tell  of  the  universal  Father,  —  all  things 
prophecy  ultimate  good.  As  science  withdraws  the  veils 
of  nature,  in  every  depth,  in  every  recess,  it  discovers  a 
ray  of  that  love  which  was  concentrated  upon  the  cross. 
It  sees  no  hopeless  incongruity.  It  argues  no  endless 
suffering.  The  keenest  analysis  can  detect  no  such  thing 
as  unmitigated  evil.  It  falls  not  as  a  residuum  into  any 
crucible.  The  bright  worlds  above  tell  of  peace  and 
harmony ;  and  at  the  farthest  verge  of  creation,  as  at  the 
centre,  their  sparkling  glories  speak  of  wisdom,  benefi- 
cence, and  design,  —  the  moving  of  a  great  purpose  en- 
compassed by  infinite  love  as  by  universal  space.  Thus 
all  nature  seems  weaving  the  tissues  of  a  sublime  work. 
Slowly  yet  surely,  from  the  seeming  evil,  evolves  the  sub- 
stantial good.  The  isolated  fact  which  yesterday  ap- 
peared so  contradictory,  to-day,  as  we  open  upon  a  higher 
series,  exhibits  a  beautiful  adaptation.  The  discords 
which  pained  us  so,  as  we  draw  near  them  swell  into  a 
mighty  harmony. 


WE  must  look  for  the  primal  truths,  the  authentic 
elements  of  things,  in  that  which  is  spontaneous  and 
universal. 


LIVING    WORDS.  189 

THE  things  that  are  the  most  providential  in  this  life 
are  the  difficult  things.  Therein  lies  the  glory  of  man 
and  the  goodness  of  God. 


IN  the  material  and  the  spiritual  worlds  nothing  is  at 
loose  ends ;  but  everywhere  there  is  a  sacred  order,  an 
intelligible  tendency,  and  a  fixed  result. 


WHAT  comes  out  of  nature  now  is  religion.  The  front 
of  sceptical  investigation  is  passing  away.  The  porten- 
tious  genii  issuing  from  the  chemist's  crucible,  the  nebu- 
lous suggestions  of  the  doubtful  astronomer,  and  the  like, 
are  all  merging  into  Christian  truth,  and  faith,  and 
knowledge;  and  we  involuntarily  cry  out,  "How  mar- 
vellous are  thy  works,  0  Lord !  " 


FKOM  the  scientific  discoveries  of  our  day  we  may 
claim  this  result :  that  what  we  see  of  the  material  uni- 
verse demands  our  faith  in  greater  powers  that  we  do  not 
see,  —  makes  mind,  spirit,  a  clearer  reality  than  matter, 
and  with  innumerable  voices  from  awful  depths  of  mys- 
tery rebukes  that  arrogant  scepticism  that  confines  all 
power  and  being  to  the  sensible  world,  and  will  believe 
only  what  it  sees  and  comprehends. 


190  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  individual  and  the  race  are  always  moving,  and 
as  we  drift  into  new  latitudes  new  lights  open  in  the 
heaven  more  immediately  over  us. 


WE  must  study  nature  not  alone  in  the  dry  light  of 
reason,  but  in  the  glow  of  religious  sentiment.  We  must 
stand  in  that  position  where  a  moral  light  falls  upon  it, 
illuminating  its  hieroglyphic  beauty  with  a  clear,  spiritual 
significance.  We  must  see  it  ,all  generalized  in  God ; 
then  we  may  descend  to  intellectual  formulas  and  defini- 
tions  The  chain  of  induction  which  we  so  painfully 

elaborate,  link  by  link,  must  be  charged  with  the  magnet- 
ism of  faith  and  love.  Then  will  it  be  traversed  by  cur- 
rents of  spiritual  life,  rending  the  veil  of  materialism, 
and  opening  the  mysteries  of  the  universe. 


CHRIST  saw  much  in  this  world  to  weep  over,  and  much 
to  pray  over ;  but  he  saw  nothing  in  it  to  look  upon  with 
contempt. 


THE  book  of  Ecclesiastes  would  be  the  gospel  if  there 
were  no  God  in  whom  our  minds  were  stayed,  and  in 
whose  wise  and  beneficent  purposes,  working  beyond  all 
human  ends,  we  could  trust. 


LIVING    WORDS.  191 


IN  the  mere  farm  of  the  work  nature  will  always 
eclipse  art,  and  take  the  premiums.  There  is  nothing 
like  her  crystal  palace  out-doors,  over  whose  inaugural 
beauty  the  morning-stars  sang  together,  and  whose  dome 
is  the  immensity  of  light.  She  will  show  an  insect's  eye 
to  humble  all  our  skill.  She  will  flash  her  tints  from  the 
arc  of  the  rainbow  and  the  gates  of  the  sunset,  and  make 
our  richest  dyes  look  pale  By  the  side  of  our  finest 
fabrics  she  will  hang  her  oriental  lilies  ;  yes,  her  familiar 
summer  flowers  ;  and  all  their  glory  cannot  be  compared 
to  one  of  these.  But  when  we  consider  labor  as  the  de- 
veloped energy  of  the  soul,  —  when  we  look  upon  art  as 
representing  spiritual  substance,  —  then  we  perceive  the 
real  significance  of  their  products.  Then  every  utensil 
becomes  a  hieroglyphic  of  human  progress.  Then  every 
fabric  shows  not  only  what  man  has  wrought  out  of 
nature,  but  what  is  in  him,  and  goes  forth  from  him, 
transcending  nature. 


IF  this  earth  were  turned  into  a  physical  paradise, 
and  every  man  made  an  independent  sovereign  of  the  soil, 
there  would  still  be  the  same  unsatisfied  capacities,  the 
same  deep  moral  wants.  The  great  end  of  man  is  not  to 
be  adjusted  to  the  world,  but  to  be  raised  above  it,  and  he 
needs  a  Redeemer  more  than  a  reformer. 


192  LIVING    WORDS. 

IN  this  old  world,  battle-scarred,  sin-stained,  brutalized 
as  it  is,  there  was  something  that  Christ  could  not  de- 
spise, —  even  the  pure  Christ.  There  was  something  in 
it  that  he  so  loved  that  he  gave  his  blood -for  it.  And  I 
know,  poor,  sceptical,  canting  philosopher,  that  the  world 
and  humanity  are  not  the  mean  things  you  say,  because  I 
measure  them  by  the  attitude  and  expression  of  Christ's 
spirit  toward  them. 


PAUL,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  shows  how  this 
valley  of  Baca,  bright  with  angels'  wings,  surrounded 
with  a  great  crowd  of  witnesses,  is  a  great  race-course 
and  field  of  noble  effort,  in  which  men  press  forward  to 
the  highest  attainment ;  not  a  ball  of  dust  and  ashes,  not 
a  theatre  of  sensual  action,  but  a  noble  field,  glorified, 
lifted  up,  and  lighted  with  God's  light,  —  full  of  glorious 
influences  the  moment  the  inward  eyes  are  unsealed. 


IT  is  always  the  tendency  of  the  highest  knowledge  to 
melt  off  into  devotion,  —  to  be  reverent  and  thankful,  — 
to  find  God  at  the  end  of  its  explorations. 


CHRISTIANITY  has  made  martyrdom  sublime,  and  sor- 
row triumphant. 


LIVING    WORDS.  193 

THE  man  who  lies  down  and  goes  to  sleep,  instead  of 
doing  his  work,  is  not  patient,  or,  if  he  has  patience,  it  is 
of  the  wrong  kind,  and  nobody  else  has  any  with  him. 
God  has  not  any,  nor  anybody  else,  with  the  lazy  man. 


IT  would  astonish  a  man  sometimes  to  take  the  torch 
of  introspection,  and  go  down  through  his  own  heart,  and 
see  how  many  different  faces  will  look  out  upon  him  from 
its  chambers,  each  one  himself,  in  some  phase  of  possibil- 
ity that  lurks  in  his  own  nature. 


IN  every  step  we  take,  that  admonition  of  an  unfinished 
work  speaks  to  us.  Whence  comes  this  restlessness 
within  us?  What  is  the  purpose  of  this  unquenched 
desire  within  the  soul?  We  secure  one  end,  but  still 
seek  for  another.  We  heap  up  so  much  wealth,  but  ask 
for  more.  We  increase  in  knowledge,  and  yet  there  is  a 
void.  We  rise  in  reputation,  but  we  are  not  satisfied. 
No;  we  cannot  be  satisfied  with  anything  short  of  the 
true  end  of  our  being.  We  cannot  be  satisfied  until 
Christ  is  formed  in  us. 


THE  best  method  of  acquiring  the  ability  to  do  what 
we  would  is  to  do  what  we  can. 

17 


194  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  noblest  men  of  this  day  are  the  devoutest  men. 
The  greatest  thinkers  are  men  who  pray,  —  who  meditate 
upon  God,  — in  whose  hearts  roll  the  old  anthems  of  the 
church;  that  have  swept  up  through  the  ages,  with  a  gush 
of  melody,  for  nineteen  hundred  years.  They  are  devo- 
tional as  well  as  logical ;  —  they  feel,  as  well  as  think. 


THE  mystery  of  this  soul  enshrined  in  flesh,  even 
though  it  be  sinful  flesh,  is,  that  there  is  in  it  that  which 
enables  it  to  claim  kinship  with  God  ;  —  there  is  in  it  a 
nature  like  to  his  nature.  0  ye  stars  that  light  up  the 
vestibules  of  heaven !  0  ye  glories  of  creation,  with  all 
your  magnificence  and  power !  how  ye  shrivel  up  and 
grow  dim  before  the  possibilities  of  the  human  soul !  The 
poorest  beggar  has  that  kinship  to  God  by  which  he  may 
aspire  to  be  perfect  even  as  God  is  perfect. 


THE  testimony  to  Christianity  is  the  witness  of  human 
experience.  We  are  made  aware  of  its  adaptedness  be- 
cause more  and  more  driven  to  seek  its  aid.  We  discover, 
that  it  is  the  universal  and  permanent  light  because  we 
are  passing  into  a  circle  which  that  light  alone  can  fill. 
We  know  it  to  be  the  word  of  eternal  life,  for  nothing 
else  answers  our  questions  or  confirms  our  best  anticipa- 
tions. 


LIVING    WORDS.  195 

WE  may  blossom  into  angels,  for  aught  we  know,  — 
angels  who  cast  their  crowns  before  God,  praising  him 
continually.  But  must  we  stop  there  ?  No ;  the  requi- 
sition is,  "  Be  ye  perfect  even  as  your  Father  who  is  in 
heaven  is  perfect."  You  never  can  .be  that;  and  that  is 
the  glory  of  it.  You  will  always  be  striving  for  it, — 
always  pressing  forward,  —  always  moving  upward ;  and 
all  eternity  becomes  a  development  of  effort,  —  a  cease- 
less growth,  —  a  continual  aspiration  after  perfection. 


HE  who  has  climbed  to  Alpine  heights  of  wisdom  must 
be  hi&able ;  for  looking  off  he  sees  not  the  dead  wall  that 
seems  to  line  our  vision,  but  a  universe  in  which  break 
waves  of  being  without  an  echo,  and  around  which  hangs 
the  awful  darkness  that  conceals  the  springs  of  nature  and 
the  mysteries  of  God. 


THE  sails  may  be  set  from  the  proud  ship's  masts,  the 
compass  may  point  duly  to  the  north,  and  the  chart  be 
unrolled;  but  unless  a  strong  hand  rests  upon  the  helm, 
and  a  master  treads  the  deck,  she  rolls  among  the  billows, 
and  drifts  where  the  four  winds  send  her.  So  with  every 
facility  for  success,  and  the  light  of  promise  in  the  soul, 
the  man  neglecting  the  lawful  means  of  subsistence  can- 
not expect  to  find  those  means  working  for  him  without 
his  agency. 


196  LIVING    WORDS. 

How  much  stronger  than  the  banded  legions  of  the 
mighty,  than  the  decrees  of  kings,  is  one  free,  earnest 
soul,  as  he  utters  those  words  •which  shall  move  a  hundred 
generations:  "Here  stand  I; — I  cannot  otherwise;  — 
God  help  me." 


IF  we  are  hazarding  opportunities,  and  gifts,  and  facul- 
ties for  mere  earthly  and  sensual  gain ;  if  we  are  playing 
for  wealth,  or  pleasure,  or  fame,  instead  of  living  for 
another  life,  —  instead  of  seeking  that  we  may  grow  like 
Christ,  —  what  are  we  but  gamesters  all  ? 


IT  is  because  we  underrate  thought  —  because  we  do 
not  see  what  a  great  element  it  is  in  religious  life  —  that 
there  is  so  little  of  practical  and  consistent  religion  among 
us. 


COMPLEX  as  it  may  be  in  its  operations,  our  spiritual 
being  in  itself  is  one  indissoluble  unity.  The  feelings  do 
not  move  without  some  light  from  the  intellect ;  and  the 
brain  feels  the  pulses  of  the  heart. 


THE  strongest  argument  against  the  philosophy  of 
materialism  is  not  dialectic.  It  leaps  out  from  the  very 
depths  of  human  nature. 


LIVING    WORDS.  197 

THERE  is  one  thing  certain:  every  man  has  a  call 
from  God,  and  if  he  really  throws  himself  with  earnest 
heart  into  life,  and  asks  with  a  deep  sense  of  moral 
responsibility  "  What  can  I  do  ? "  he  will  find  some 
little  shred  of  power  that  will  catch  him  to  God's  great 
plan,  and  weave  out  results  incalculable. 


FATALISM,  whether  it  assume  the  form  of  torpid  acqui- 
escence or  of  inconsiderate  reliance,  is  not  resignation. 
It  is  right  to  recognize  an  overruling  Providence,  but 
it  is  a  Providence  that  works  with  us,  not  for  us.  The 
impatience  with  which  we  beat  the  walls  of  difficulty,  and 
heave  against  misfortune,  is  not  an  impious  discontent,  but 
a  spring  of  noble  enterprise,  which  God  encourages,  for 
which  he  has  opened  a  wide  sphere  of  action,  and  by 
which  alone  we  can  achieve  success.  To  suppose  that  he 
prevents  this  effort  is  to  suppose  that  he  infringes  his  own 
ordinances,  established  for  the  wisest  and  most  benevolent 
ends.  To  attribute  calamity  to  him,  without  making  this 
effort,  is  to  confound  faith  with  folly,  and  religion  with 
laziness.  Only  by  the  diligent  exertion  of  our  own  will 
can  we  realize  the  will  of  God  mysteriously  working  with 
us.  Only  when  we  have  reached  the  boundary  of  our 
extremest  effort  can  we  see  the  superior  purpose  which 
encircles  us. 

17* 


198  LIVING    WORDS. 

I  WOULD  not  give  anything  for  the  most  eloquent 
preacher  in  the  world  who  had  not  back  of  that  the  elo- 
quence of  a  life  of  moral  power,  of  a  consistent  character ; 
and  then  it  is  not  so  much  the  words  that  are  said  as  the 
unction  streaming  as  it  were  from  God  himself  that  has 
the  effect. 


THE  further  we  penetrate  the  embankments  of  evil 
the  thinner  the  strata  appear,  while  the  great  underlying 
power  of  life  is  goodness.  When  we  rise  above  the  earth- 
shadows  which  cover  us,  and  which  dwindle  away  in  the 
universal  space  filled  with  God's  love,  —  the  further  we 
pierce,  and  rise,  and  penetrate,  —  the  more  do  the  ex- 
ceptional facts  fall  away,  and  the  general  rule  of  goodness 
appears.  The  most  intelligent  faith  is  the  most  cheerful 
faith.  Instead  of  being  a  mere  sentimental  conception  of 
God,  that  he  is  good,  it  is  a  conception  confirmed  by  the 
broadest  knowledge,  and  by  the  most  solid  intelligence. 


MERCY  among  the  virtues  is  like  the  moon  among 
the  stars,  —  not  so  sparkling  and  vivid  as  many,  but  dis- 
pensing a  calm  radiance  that  hallows  the  whole.  It  is 
the  bow  that  rests  upon  the  bosom  of  the  cloud  when  the 
storm  has  passed.  It  is  the  light  that  hovers  above  the 
judgment-seat. 


LIVING    WORDS.  199 

NATURE  is  fixed  capital ;  but,  if  I  may  use  the  term, 
every  man  in  God's  hands,  or,  as  God  has  sent  him  into 
the  world,  is  speculative  capital,  a  possibility  that  you 
cannot  limit. 


THE  noblest  wisdom,  the  best  knowledge  of  all,  is  that 
of  a  pure,  earnest,  loving  heart.  There  is  a  knowledge 
in  which  man  grows  as  he  truly  grows  in  religion.  The 
harmony  without  responds  to  a  harmony  within.  The 
good  man  alone  reads  the  wisdom  printed  on  leaf  and 
flower.  God  has  made  the  sea  a  great  organ,  whose 
pedals  and  stops  are  in  the  heart  of  the  earth ;  only  the 
good  man's  soul  discerns  its  melody.  He  has  made  the 
rainbow  beautiful  to  the  eyes  of  a  little  child,  but  only 
faith  and  love  can  interpret  its  meaning.  He  has  made 
the  stars  golden  ladders  through  infinity ;  only  the  puri- 
fied spirit  shall  tread  them.  He  has  given  us,  best  of 
all,  the  divine  life  of  Christ;  only  the  Christ-like  soul 
shall  understand  and  live  it.  Here  are  sources  of  knowl- 
edge, here  is  a  power,  richer  than  any  other,  which  the 
ignorant  may  possess,  and  the  wise  be  ignorant  of. 


THE  deepest  life  of  nature  is  silent  and  obscure ;  so, 
often,  the  elements  that  move  and  mould  society  are  the 
results  of  the  sister's  counsel  and  the  mother's  prayer. 


200  LIVING    WORDS. 

WHEN  banners  have  been  furled,  and  swords  sheathed, 
and  cannons  hushed,  and  men  have  learned  a  nobler  wis- 
dom than  they  have  heretofore  practised,  the  grandest 
foundations  of  society  will  be  built  upon  Christ's  law  of 
love. 


THE  student  of  nature  is  like  one  who  goes  with  a 
candle  into  some  immense  cavern.  Presently  a  little 
circle  becomes  clear,  the  shadows  vanish  before  him,  and 
undefined  forms  grow  distinct.  He  thinks  he  is  near  the 
end,  when,  lo  !  what  seemed  a  solid  boundary  of  rock  dis- 
solves and  floats  away  into  a  depth  of  darkness,  the  path 
opens  into  an  immense  void,  new  shapes  of  mystery  start 
out,  and  he  learns  this  much  that  he  did  not  know  before, 
that  instead  of  being  near  the  end  he  is  only  upon  the 
threshold. 


HE  who  finds  the  platform  where  best  he  can  truly 
benefit  others  and  himself  need  not  feel  that  he  is  stepping 
down,  or  going  apart  from  the  divine  presence  and  bless- 
ing as  into  some  unsanctified  sphere. 


THOSE  lofty  souls,  far  upward  on  the  mountain-steeps 
of  spiritual  attainment,  and  whose  garments  glisten  in 
their  nearness  to  heaven,  have  trodden  the  ground  that 
lies  between  inch  by  inch. 


LIVING    WORDS.  201 

IF  the  gospel  does  not  explain  all  the  mysteries  of  life, 
and  solve  the  great  enigma  of  evil,  the  irresistible  proof 
of  its  authenticity,  that  which  answers  all  questions  and 
silences  all  cavils,  is  its  efficacy  in  enabling  us  to  bear 
our  trials,  to  overcome  them,  to  convert  them  into  crowns 
of  joy  and  springs  of  consolation. 


SHE  who  stood  with  Christ  in  his  humiliation  is  called 
to  accompany  him  in  his  triumph.  She  came  with  her 
affections  to  honor  the  shame  of  his  cross.  In  the  new 
age  that  is  dawning  upon  us  these  affections  shall  be 
closely  associated  with  the  power  of  his  spirit  who  hung 
there. 


WOMAN,  of  all  beings,  needs  the  life  and  the  power  of 
religion.  When  we  consider  what  she  is  called  upon  to 
do,  what  interests  come  under  her  influence,  what  brave 
yet  tender  virtues  she  must  cherish,  where  can  she  go  but 
to  him  who  alone  has  lived  these  virtues,  and  from  whom 
alone  their  spirit  emanates  ? 


ALL  that  can  be  said  of  the  martyr  or  of  the  patriot 
is,  that  he  diligently  occupied  the  post  of  duty  ;  and  this 
may  be  said  of  you.  And  it  is  better  to  die  at  the  post 
of  duty  than  to  live  elsewhere. 


202  LIVING     WORDS. 

How  do  all  other  things  shrivel  in  view  of  the  immense 
possibility  that  is  before  every  man  !  How  do  all  things 
grow  dim  before  this  !  how  do  brocade  and  velvet  become 
like  rags,  and  coronets  become  as  tinsel,  before  the  pos- 
session of  this  immortal  nature,  which  God  says,  "  Oc- 
cupy, exercise,  watch  over,  and  take  care  of "  !  That 
•which  you  will  carry  with  you  is  the  thing  which  you 
are  to  consider.  That  which  you  leave  behind  you,  it 
makes  comparatively  little  difference  what  is  its  rank  or 
mark.  When  men  lie  with  the  hands  folded  and  the 
eyes  closed  what  matter  if  covered  with  the  robes  of  a 
king  or  the  rags  of  a  beggar  ?  Silently,  invisibly,  down 
the  dark  mystic  river,  is  drifted  the  soul ;  and  we  carry 
with  it  all  that  is  really  worthy, — all  which  should  really 
be  our  object  to  acquire  in  the  school  of  life. 


THERE  must  be  something  wrong  in  a  man  when  he 
is  afraid  of  himself,  —  when  he  dreads  the  revelation  of 
his  own  soul. 


THE  sun  uses  its  power  of  brightness  to  shine ;  the 
violet  on  the  bank  uses  its  power  of  fragrance  to  breathe 
it  forth ;  and  all  things  are  using  their  powers  up  to  their 
highest  capacities.  All  but  man ;  —  man  alone  is  guilty 
of  what  may  be  called  the  great  sin  of  unused  power. 


LIVING    WORDS.  203 

THE  true  Church  is  not  an  institution  to  be  kept  apart 
from  the  world  because  the  world  "is  common  and  un- 
clean," but  a  vital  heart  of  truth  and  love,  beating  with 
the  life  of  Jesus,  and  sending  abroad  its  sanctifying  pul- 
sations until  nothing  shall  be  common  and  unclean. 


WHEN  all  theories  are  set  adrift,  and  all  questions  agi- 
tated, how  necessary  is  it  that  we  should  be  convinced 
that  there  is  everlasting  truth.  When  sceptred  authority 
is  broken,  and  the  stability  of  all  government  is  shaken  by 
the  eager  rush  of  revolution,  how  much  do  we  need  to 
believe  in  an  immutable  moral  control.  And  while 
science  draws  the  veil  from  the  primeval  earth,  and  shows 
us  the  wrecks  of  successive  epochs,  and  prophecies  the 
funeral-pyre  of  suns  and  systems,  how  sublime  is  it  to 
feel  the  beating  pulses  of  illimitable  love,  to  confide  in 
Him  to  whose  spirit  we  are  allied,  and  who  will  maintain 
us  in  being  through  all  material  changes.  And  is  it  not 
the  bliss  and  the  miracle  of  prayer  that  it  lifts  us  away 
from  our  sins,  our  little  cares,  our  teasing  wants,  and  all 
the  mutations  of  earth,  and  embosoms  us  in  the  com- 
munion of  the  Eternal. 


THE  true  spirit  of  martyrdom  forbids  that  selfishness 
which  sometimes  seeks  martyrdom. 


204  LIVING    WORDS. 

"  ABIDE  with  us,  for  it  is  toward  evening,  and  the 
day  is  far  spent."  This  is  peculiarly  a  prayer  for  old 
age.  Already  the  long  shadows  fall  before  its  tottering 
feet,  and  the  sun  sinks  lower  to  the  horizon.  The  pulses 
of  desire  beat  more  feebly.  The  plans  of  young  ambition 
have  been  realized  or  broken.  The  relationships  of  life 
have  been  formed,  and  many  of  them  have  been  severed. 
The  contriving  mind  is  growing  weak,  and  the  vigor  that 
could  second  its  enterprises  has  departed.  The  voices 
that  the  old  man  heard  in  his  youth  have  one  by  one 
become  still,  or  if  a  few  speak  yet  it  is  with  the  discord 
of  superannuation.  The  hands  that  grasped  his  so  heart- 
ily in  the  days  long  past  are  now  formless  dust,  except, 
it  may  be,  a  few,  which,  taking  his  with  paralyzed  tremor 
like  his  own,  say  plainer  than  words,  "  My  brother,  it  is 
death  that  shakes  us  so  !  "  The  narrow  valley  declines 
before  them.  Old  father,  mother,  thou  must  tread  it ! 
Thou  canst  not  even  carry  with  thee  thy  dust-worn  san- 
dals nor  thy  staff.  Ah  !  if  thou  hast  Christian  faith  we 
know  thy  answer  now  :  "  I  am  not  alone  !  I  have  one 
affection  in  my  bosom  that  cannot  be  disappointed.  He 
whom  I  love  has  sustained  me.  when  I  knelt  upon  familiar 
graves.  He  has  drawn  nearer  and  nearer  to  me,  as  my 
aged  eyes  have  become  dim,  and  all  else  seemed  vanish- 
ing before  me.  I  know  in  whom  I  have  trusted.  His 
loving  kindness  will  not  fail  me  now.  I  see,  I  see,  my 
sands  are  almost  out,  and  my  feet  halt  among  unbroken 


LIVING     WORDS.  205 

shadows.  I  will  cling  to  him  the  closer.  "Abide  with 
me,  0  Christ !  for  it  is  toward  evening,  and  the  day  is  far 
spent." 


Upoij-  him  who  has  humbly  sought  his  post  of  duty, 
and  who  bravely  works  in  it,  we  may  be  sure  God  looks 
down  with  approbation,  and  often  sees  more  worthy  sym- 
bols in  the  coarse  apron  and  the  black  thumbs  than  in 
stars  and  coronets. 


THERE  is  no  mean  work  save  that  which  is  sordidly 
selfish ;  there  is  no  irreligious  work  save  that  which  is 
morally  wrong;  while  in  every  sphere  of  life  "the  post 
of  honor  is  the  post  of  duty." 


"!N  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread,  till 
thou  return  to  the  ground."  Some  men  shirk  this,  in  one 
way  or  another,  but  in  reality  they  sweat  more  than  any- 
body else.  He  who  has  really  stranded  in  such  a  position 
that  he  has  no  call  to  do  anything  is  the  most  miserable 
man  in  the  world. 


SOMETIMES  men  heap  coals  of  fire  on  their  enemy's 
head  in  order  to  love  him  ;  but  they  are  very  much  dis- 
appointed if  the  coals  do  not  scorch. 
18 


206  LIVING    WORDS. 

THERE  is  a  time  when  the  humblest  disciple  of  Christ 
may  weep  as  he  also  wept.  But  let  him  also  strive  as 
Christ  strove.  Let  him  not  dash  his  grief  in  rebellious 
billows  to  the  throne ;  let  not  his  groans  arise  in  angry, 

resentful  murmurs ;  let  the  remembrance  of  what  God  is 

•j 
and  why  he  does  be  with  him,  and  let  the  filial,  reverent 

trust  steal  in,  —  "Not  my  will,  but  thine  be  done." 
That  reference  to  God,  that  obedience  to  him,  rising  from 
the  very  depths  of  sorrow,  and  clung  to  without  faltering, 
is  RESIGNATION.  It  shall  bestow  peace  and  victory  in 
the  end.  0  !  how  different  from  that  sullen  fatalism  that 
lets  things  come  as  they  will !  To  such  a  soul  things  do 
come  as  they  will,  and  it  hardens  under  them ;  —  they 
do  come  as  they  will,  but  it  sees  not,  cares  not,  why  they 
come.  No  thought  goes  up  beyond  the  cloud  to  God,  — 
no  strength  is  born  that  shall  make  life's  trials  lighter, 
—  no  love  and  faith  that  will  seek  the  Father's  hand  in  the 
darkest  hour,  and  shed  a  serene,  enduring  light  over  the 
thorny  path  of  affliction  and  upon  the  bosom  of  the  graye. 
Look  at  these  two.  Outwardly  their  calmness  may  be 
the  same.  Nay,  the  one  may  evince  emotion  and  tears, 
while  the  other  shall  stand  rigid  in  the  hour  of  calamity, 
with  a  bitter  smile  or  a  frown  of  endurance.  But  in  the 
one  is  strength,  in  the  other  rigidity ;  in  the  one  is  power 
to  triumph  over  sorrow,  in  the  other  only  nervous  capacity 
to  resist  it.  The  one  is  hardened  to  indifference,  sullen 
because  of  irreligion,  upon  whom  some  sorrow  will  one 


LIVING    WORDS.  207 

day  fall  that  will  peel  him  to  the  quick,  and  he  will  not 
know  where  to  flee  for  healing.  The  other  is  man  con- 
tending against  evil,  yet  not  against  God ;  —  man  with  all 
the  tenderness  and  strength  of  his  nature,  impressible,  yet 
unconquerable,  walking  with  feet  that  bleed  among  the 
wounding  thorns,  and  a  heart  that  shrinks  from  the  heavy 
woe,  yet,  all  lacerated  as  he  is,  able  to  walk  through, 
because  he  holds  by  the  hand  of  Omnipotence.  The  one 
is  the  unbending  tree,  peeled  by  the  lightning  and 
stripped  by  the  north  wind,  lifting  its  gored  and  gnarled 
head  in  sullen  defiance  to  the  storm,  which,  when  the 
storm  does  overcome  it,  shall  be  broken.  The  other  also 
is  rooted  in  strength,  and  meets  the  rushing  blast  with  a 
lofty  front.  But  as  "it  smiles  in  sunshine  so  it  bends 
in  storm,"  trustful  and  obedient,  yet  firm  and  brave,  and 
nothing  shall  overwhelm  it. 


LET  a  man  be  bold  when  he  stands  upon  the  ramparts 
of  God's  truth,  and  proclaims  God's  right,  but  let  him  be 
appalled  when  he  descends  from  those  ramparts  and  calls 
up  carnal,  abusive,  bloody  weapons;  for  he  is  liable, 
though  he  may  inscribe  the  right  upon  his  banner,  and 
may  be  marching  with  God  over  his  head,  to  be  beaten 
down,  because  he  is  undertaking  to  cast  out  Satan  by 
Satan. 


208  LIVING     WORDS. 

THE  soul,  like  the  body,  acquires  vigor  by  the  exercise 
of  all  its  faculties.  In  the  midst  of  the  world,  in  over- 
coming difficulties,  in  conquering  selfishness,  indolence, 
and  fear,  —  in  all  the  occasions  of  duty,  it  employs,  and 
reveals  by  employing,  energies  that  render  it  efficient  and 
robust,  —  that  broaden  its  scope,  adjust  its  powers,  and 
mature  it  with  a  rich  experience. 


OUR  moral  action  must  issue  from  deep  fountains 
within  us,  springing  up  in  meditation  and  sanctified  by 
prayer.  Those  plants  of  righteousness  that  will  endure 
the  scorching  noon  and  the  beating  tempest  must  be 
silently  nurtured  by  the  dews  of  the  night  and  the  early 
breathings  of  the  morning.  There  never  yet  was  accom- 
plished any  great  work  that  was  not  the  fruit  of  long  and 
patient  thought.  Men  have  first  constructed  in  the  re- 
sources of  their  own  souls  those  great  results  which  have 
astonished  us.  From  lonely  heights  of  meditation  they 
have  come  down  to  change  the  destinies  of  the  world, — to 
revolutionize  its  ideas,  to  touch  all  its  springs  of  action. 
So  moral  energy  and  endurance,  and  all  that  spiritual 
depth  and  symmetry  which  helps  make  a  truly  religious 
character,  must  be  wrought  out  by  self-discipline,  by  in- 
ward scrutiny,  by  frequent  communion  with  great  truths. 
....  Fresh  streams  of  inspiration  bear  onward  the  soul 
that  would  climb  to  perfection. 


LIVING    WORDS.  209 

Do  not  baptize  your  passions  with  the  name  of  prin- 
ciple, or  confound  your  sharp,  selfish  persistence  with  the 
awful  "I  dare  not"  of  the  brave  soul  that  fears  God 
more  than  man, 

THE  unmerciful  man  is  most  certainly  an  unblessed 
man.  His  sympathies  are  all  dried  up;  he  is  afflicted 
with  a  chronic  jaundice,  and  lives  timidly  and  darkly  in 
a  little,  narrow  rat-hole  of  distrust.  He  has  no  free  use 
of  the  world ;  he  breathes  no  liberal  and  generous  air ; 
he  walks  in  no  genial  sunshine.  He  loses  all  the  bliss 
that  comes  from  sympathy,  from  open-heartedness,  from 
familiar  and  confiding  associations.  More  than  this,  such 
a  theory  of  humanity  is  an  open  self-condemnation. 
Whence  has  he  derived  this  theory  ?  Upon  what  prem- 
ises has  he  built  it  up?  Surely,  from  his  own  self- 
consciousness,  from  his  own  personal  experience.  There 
is  darkness  within  him,  and  so  darkness  falls  upon  every- 
thing. His  own  motives  are  sinister,  and  so  all  humanity 
squints.  The  suspicious  man,  —  the  man  who  distrusts 
all  other  men,  and  so  is  unmerciful  to  all,  —  reveals  him- 
self as  a  mean  man. 


PUBLIC  feeling  now  is  apt  to  side  with  the  persecuted , 
and  our  modern  martyr  is  full  as  likely  to  be  smothered 
with  roses  as  with  coals. 
18* 


210  LIVING    WORDS. 

MERCY  is  in  complete  harmony  with  justice 

There  is  no  conflict  between  mercy  and  absolute  right. 
....  Unmerciful  justice  is  unjust,  and  unjust  mercy 
unmerciful Mercy  considers  not  merely  tempo- 
rary and  isolated  relief,  but  the  general  welfare ;  so  does 
justice.  For  instance :  in  permitting  an  offender  to  go 
free  from  all  rebuke  and  punishment  we  do  not  exercise 
genuine  mercy.  We  are  not  merciful  to  society ;  for  we 
let  loose  upon  its  interests  unrestrained  and  encouraged 
crime.  We  are  not  merciful  to,  the  offender ;  for  we  leave 
him  to  the  sweep  of  "his  own  passions,  and  the  deepening 
canker  of  his  guilt.  The  father  who  never  corrects  his 
child  may  be  a  soft-hearted  but  he  is  not  a  merciful 
parent.  There  is  no  mercy  in  letting  the  child  have  its 
own  will,  plunging  headlong  with  the  bits  in  its  mouth 
to  destruction. 


WHILE  the  secret  of  a  leaf  is  not  known;  while  no 
man  can  penetrate  the  mystery  of  existence ;  while  reve- 
lations of  a  higher  truth  continually  break  in  upon  us, 
— shall  we,  in  the  poverty  of  our  knowledge,  say  what 
cannot  be?  Shall  we  deny  those  great  spiritual  laws 
which  throb  in  our  own  consciousness  ?  Shall  we  reject 
those  affirmations  of  miracle  and  of  immortal  life  to  which 
our  best  capacities  and  desires  respond,  because  they  con- 
tradict our  pre-conceived  theories,  our  systematic  methods  ? 


LIVING    WORDS.  211 

DETAILS  may  perplex  our  faith,  but  the  grand  whole 
does  not.  It  vindicates  the  doctrine  of  the  essential  good- 
ness of  God  as  seen  in  nature.  For  the  harmonies  of 
things  appear  as  we  explore.  Order  itself  is  beneficent, 
and  that  is  the  great  feet  that  science  discloses  every- 
where. Order  in  the  calyx  of  the  violet,  and  in  the 
bosom  of  the  sun ;  in  the  braided  constellations  of  the 
heavens,  and  in  the  drops  of  the  summer  shower.  Order 
everywhere,  and  law ;  and  that  law  beneficence,  securing 
harmony  and  peace,  and  working  out  steadily  great  ends. 


THE  Bible  is  our  mirror  into  which  faith  gazes  and 
beholds  reflected  heavenly  things,  —  the  celestial  land, 
the  palmy  crowns,  and  the  face  of  the  Redeemer.  "  It  is 
our  chart.  We  consult  it  when  heaven  is  darkened  and 
the  shadows  fall,  when  winds  rage  and  waves  beat,  and 
rocks  and  whirlpools  are  around  us,  and  the  cold  peltings 
of  the  storm.  It  is  our  telescope;  and  we  see  from  afar 
the  gates  of  the  New  Jerusalem  and  its  crystal  walls. 


THERE  have  been  men  who  could  play  delightful 
music  on  one  string  of  the  violin,  but  there  never  was  a 
man  who  could  produce  the  harmonies  of  heaven  in  his 
soul  by  a  one-stringed  virtue. 


212  LIVING    WORDS. 

"  THEN  came  Jesus  forth,  wearing  the  crown  of  thorns 
and  the  purple  robe."-  What  brought  him  to  this? 
What  led  him  to  endure  the  mockery  and  the  blows? 
What  is  it  that  stands  there  crowned  with  thorns? 
LOVE  !  It  is  nothing  else  but  LOVE.'  No  other  power  in 
all  the  universe  but  love  could  thus  endure.  Only  thus 
are  its  exhaustless  riches  and  its  divine  glory  manifested. 
Only  in  suffering  and  in  sacrifice  can  it  reveal  its  depths. 
When  all  else  fails,  then  it  begins  to  shine.  When  all 
else  gives  up,  then  it  commences  its  work,  —  its  immor- 
tal, its  triumphant  work.  Yes,  that  is  love,  God's  love, 
that  beams  out  from  the  face  of  Christ,  —  that  anon  will 
trickle  in  blood  and  be  broken  by  nails.  God's  love ! 
It  endures  long,  but  it  triumphs,  and  therefore  in  its 
greatest  manifestation  here  upon  earth  was  crowned  with 
thorns.  Christ  crowned  with  thorns !  Can  anything 
else  teach  us  so  significantly  the  great  truth  of  SUFFERING 
YET  TRIUMPHANT  LOVE?  And  love  for  whom ?  —  for 
whom  was  that  sorrow  borne  ?  0  !  reader,  let  us  not  be 
dull-eyed  or  hard-hearted ;  —  for  you  and  me  it  was ! 


THE  Word  of  God  wars  not  with  his  works.  Every 
new  revelation  of  nature  but  strengthens  the  chain  which 
links  earth  and  sky,  —  adds  to  the  battlements  of  that 
religion  whose  foundation  is  the  eternal  Rock,  and  whose 
pinnacle  is  bright  with  upper  glories. 


LIVING    WORDS.  213 

THE  true  poet  possesses  something  more  than  truth, 
or  knowledge  which  is  based  upon  truth.  He  must 
commune  with  that  of  which  truth  is  the  going  forth 
or  utterance,  —  the  spirit  that  lies  behind  all,  which  is 
love. 


THE  cross  of  Christ !  It  stands  there.  The  body  of 
the  Redeemer  has  been  taken  away.  The  crowd  have 
dispersed  to  their  homes.  The  setting  sun  gilds  it ;  the 
stars  shed  over  it  their  holy  lustre;  and  through  the 
silent  night  it  stands  there  an  instrument  of  ignominy, 
and  torture,  and  death.  And  when  the  morning  light 
falls  upon  it  the  people  point  to  it  as  the  wood  on  which 
the  malefactor  died.  But  it  is  an  instrument  of  ignominy 
no  more.  From  that  hour  when  he  drew  his  last  breath 
it  became  a  glorious  emblem,  a  sign  of  victory.  Through 
the  ages  it  stands,  the  guide  of  the  sinning,  the  hope  of 
the  doubting,  the  rest  of  the  weary.  Through  the  ages 
it  stands.  Many  suns  shine  upon  it ;  night-like  epochs 
roll  their  starry  lustre  over  it ;  changes  go  on  around  it ; 
but  there  it  stands,  the  great  manifestation  of  truth  and 
love,  —  the  point  of  atonement  between  man  and  God. 
The  cross  of  Christ !  The  hcsts  of  steel,  the  powers  of 
human  wisdom,  shall  roll  back  and  be  broken ;  but  here 
is  a  power  that  cannot  be  overcome,  —  an  influence  that 
reaches  the  heart,  that  exalts  while  it  binds  the  soul. 


214  LIVING    WORDS. 

Now  when  we  sorrow  we  know  who  also  sorrowed; 
we  remember  whose  agony  the  still  heavens  looked  upon 
with  all  their  starry  eyes,  whose  tears  moistened  the 
bosom  of  the  b^are  earth,  whose  utterance  of  anguish 
pierced  the  gloom  of  night.  Now,  too,  when  we  sorrow 
we  know  where  to  find  relief;  we  learn  that  spirit  of 
resignation,  and  under  what  conditions  it  may  be  born. 
Thank  God,  then,  for  the  lesson  of  the  lonely  garden  and 
the  weeping  Christ;  ive,  too,  may  be  "made  perfect 
through  suffering." 


THE  tokens  of  the  divine  beneficence  are  strung  every- 
where, and  the  fundamental  and  comprehensive  life  of 
the  universe  shows  the  whole  to  be  steeped  in  love ;  yet 
after  all  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  being  that  gives  us  a 
definite  comprehension  of  God  as  the  Father,  in  all  his 
personality,  in  all  the  closeness  of  his  relation. 


Childlike  is  precisely  the  definition  of  the  Christian 
disposition.  It  takes  its  disciples  from  the  bustle,  and 
forms,  and  warfare  of  life,  and  sets  them  down  at  the  feet 
of  Jesus  as  little  children.  And  of  what  other  religion, 
of  what  philosophy,  can  this  be  said  :  that  its  great  object 
is  to  make  men  gentle  and  childlike  in  their  dispositions  ? 
We  know  of  none.  It  is  a  peculiarity  of  the  gospel. 


LIVING    WORDS.  215 

WHEN  long  the  soul  had  slept  in  chains, 

And  man  to  man  -was  stern  and  cold ; 
When  love  and  worship  were  but  strains 

That  swept  the  gifted  chords  of  old,  — 
By  shady  mount  and  peaceful  lake 

A  meek  and  lowly  stranger  came. 
The  weary  drank  the  words  he  spake ; 

The  poor  and  feeble  blessed  his  name. 

No  shrine  he  reared  in  porch  or  grove ; 

No  vested  priests  around  him  stood ; 
He  went  about  to  teach,  and  prove 

The  lofty  work  of  doing  good. 
Said  he  to  those  who  with  him  trod, 

"Would  ye  be  my  disciples?  then 
Evince  your  ardent  love  for  God 

By  the  kind  deeds  ye  do  for  men."     . 

He  went  where  frenzy  held  its  rule,  — 

Where  sickness  breathed  its  spell  of  pain ; 
By  famed  Bethesda's  mystic  pool, 

And  by  the  darkened  gate  of  Nain. 
He  soothed  the  mourner's  troubled  breast, 

He  raised  the  contrite  sinner's  head, 
And  on  the  loved  ones'  lowly  rest 

The  light  of  better  life  he  shed. 


216  LIVING    WORDS. 

RELIGION  dwells  in  the  depths  of  the  heart,  and  beams 
with  an  angel-radiance  from  the  face  of  the  poor  man,  and 
drops  the  widow's  mite  into  the  treasury,  and  hallows  the 
humble  cottage,  and  lingers  amid  the  rude  arches  of  the 
forest ;  when  it  is  perhaps  afar  from  the  robe  of  learning, 
and  the  hypocritical  righteousness  of  the  rigid  professor, 
and  the  golden  donation  of  the  rich,  and  the  gorgeous 
tapestry  of  the  temple,  and  the  glittering  ornaments  of 
the  altar !  Like  the  still  femall  voice  on  Horeb,  it  is  not 
in  the  tumult  and  the  show,  but  in  the  calm  of  devotion, 
visiting  the  lowly  and  the  humble  mind.  Heard  not  in 
the  long,  loud  prayer,  nor  in  the  ornate  and  eloquent  dis- 
course ;  but  breathing  through  the  broken  language  of  the 
unlettered,  and  heard  in  the  simple  petition  of  the  poor, 
•bowed  widow,  who  lifts  her  thanks  by  her  scanty  board 
or  kneels  on  the  lowest  step  of  the  altar. 


HOLDING  on  half-way,  while  trying  to  go  the  whole 
way  with  the  right,  is  very  different  from  going  on  walk- 
ing with  the  wrong  because  it  is  expedient. 


IT  is  exceedingly  deleterious  to  withdraw  the  sanction 
of  religion  from  amusement.  If  we  feel  that  it  is  all  in- 
jurious we  should  strip  the  earth  of  its  flowers  and  blot 
out  its  pleasant  sunshine. 


LIVING    WORDS.  217 

A  MAN  that  has  the  "spirit  of  Christ  in  him  has  the 
spring  and  energy  of  all  positive  power. 


OF  all  the  myriad  leaves  in  the  forest,  there  is  not  one 
that  has  not  its  office  and  its  use,  nor  is  there  an  atom  in 
the  universe  which  has  not  some  chink  or  cranny  to  fill. 
So,  we  may  believe,  there  is  not  a  superfluous  man,  — 
one  who,  if  he  consults  his  aptitudes  instead  of  his  in- 
clinations, will  not  find  that  he  has  a  call. 


MEN  will  do  things  in  public  —  as  a  community,  as  a 
party,  as  a  nation — that  they  would  not  do  as  individuals, 
nor  think  of  doing.  No  man  would  think  of  stealing  an 
apple  from  a  boy  because  he  wants  it ;  but  men  would 
Bteal  a  whole  island  because  they  want  it,  with  a  mean- 
ness just  in  proportion  to  the  largeness  of  the  theft. 
Why  is  this?  Because  men  talk  of  an  expediency  in 
regard  to  public  acts,  concerning  which  they  would  not 
venture  a  liap  in  regard  to  private  ones,  and  make  that 
the  rule,  rather  than  the  supreme,  eternal  right. 


THE  great  test  by  which  one  may  know  where   he 
stands  in  God's  universe  is  to  know  what  he  loves  and 
why  he  loves  it. 
19 


218  LIVING    WORDS. 

WHEN  I  contrast  the  loving  'Jesus,  comprehending  all 
things  in  his  ample  and  tender  charity,  with  those  who 
profess  to  bear  his  name,  marking  their  zeal  by  what  they 
do  not  love,  it  seems  to  me  as  though  men,  like  the 
•witches  of  old,  had  read  the  Bible  backward,  and  had 
taken  incantations  out  of  it  for  evil,  rather  than  inspira- 
tion for  good. 

IN  measuring  the  decalogue  we  must  take  Christ's 
golden  rule  rather  than  the  golden  eagle. 


THE  truth  beautiful !  Where  in  this  world  so  beauti- 
ful as  in  the  walk  and  conversation  of  a  righteous  man,  a 
righteous  woman?  There  is  beautiful  truth  in  the 
sounding,  sun-lit  sea ;  there  is  beautiful  truth  in  the  un- 
dying stars ;  but  nowhere  such  a  beauty  of  truth  as  in 
that  pure-hearted  host  which  do  God's  will;  in  those  who 
live  serving  God  and  serving  humanity.  The  gospel  is 
a  beautiful  truth ;  but  where  can  we  apprehend  its  beauty 
as  in  the  life  of  Jesus  ? 


ANYTHING  truly  lives  when  it  fills  up  the  capacities 
of  its  being ;  and  anything  is  dead  just  in  proportion  as 
its  faculties  or  functions  are  inoperative. 


LIVING    WORDS.  219 

POETRY,  in  its  highest  essence  and  expression,  is  truth ; 
and  just  in  proportion  as  it  is  genuine  poetry  it  must  b€ 
true ;  it  is  not  mere  fancy  or-imagination.  And,  as  the 
converse  of  this  fact,  of  course  it  is  to  be  admitted  that 
truth  is  poetry;  it  is  the  grandest  poetry.  And  men, 
when  they  are  called  upon  to  exercise  the  highest  truth, 
the  largest  and  sublimest  conception  they  have  of  truth, 
either  consciously  or  unconsciously,  always  hurst  into 
poetry.  In  its  religion  the  human  mind  finds  ordinary 
language  too  stinted,  and  must  seize  upon  symbols  to 
express  its  conceptions. 


NEXT  to  the  abolition  of  all  religious  ordinances  there 
is  nothing  so  ominous  as  a  hollow  and  weary  observance 
of  them.  Nay,  this  is  even  worse  than  violent  irreligion, 
for  that  is  too  unnatural  to  last  long,  and  its  terrible 
earnestness  will  produce  reaction. 


No  movement  is  so  exclusively  public  as  to  take  away 
the  force  of  individual  responsibility ;  —  no  multitude  is 
so  large  as  to  absorb  one's  moral  personality ;  —  but  in 
the  public  movement,  in  the  huge  crowd,  he  stands  as  if 
he  were  standing  alone  in  the  universe,  spiritually  naked, 
listening  to  the  judgment  of  God  and  the  beating  of  his 
own  heart. 


220  LIVING    WORDS. 

f 

-  THERE  never  was  a  man  all  intellect ;  but  just  in  pro- 
portion as  men  become  so  they  become  like  lofty  moun- 
tains, all  ice  and  snow  the  higher  they  rise  above  the 
warm  heart  of  the  earth. 


FROM  the  mountain-top  where  he  has  sat  in  the  kin- 
dlings of  the  morning  ;  from  the  watch-tower  where  he  has 
gazed  into  the  serene,  far  heaven ;  from  the  forests  where 
he  has  communed  with  nature  and  with  God,  —  the  poet 
comes  forth  into  the  dusty,  trampled  highway  of  human 
life ;  he  mingles  with  the  rushing  crowd,  the  various, 
anxious  faces,  the  selfish  striving,  the  hollow  friendships, 
the  dry-husk  religion  of  the  world.  He  is  not  made  to 
be  a  hermit,  committing  snatches  of  verse  to  the  air,  and 
tuning  his  soul  to  wind-harps.  From  the  lonely  truth 
be  comes  to  the  many-faced  reality,  —  from  the  solitary 
communion  to  the  eager,  blended  multitude.  He  comes 
and  speaks  in  warm,  sweet  or  trumpet  tones,  —  speaks  to 
the  desolate  and  mourning,  to  the  clogged  ear  and  the 
'calloused  heart,  —  touches  some  chord  that  yet  lives,  and 
that  none  but  the  poet  can  reach.  And  the  human  heart 
recognizes  him  —  the  universal  heart. 


No  religious  ship  or  sect  would  like  to  be  responsible 
for  all  the  barnacles  and  sea- weed  on  its  hull. 


LIVING    WORDS.  221 

THE  utterance  of  truth  in  the  spirit  of  love  is  the 
poet's  mission.  This  makes  poetry.  Our  age  is  full  of 
such  lyrics,  written  on  a  grand  scale,  played  upon  all  the 
strings  of  the  human  heart.  Every  noble  reform  around 
us  is  a  procession,  an  outpealing  of  such  sublime  poetry. 
And  the  true  poet  of  our  age  is  he  who  sets  the  key-note, 
or  becomes  the  voice  or  expression  of  this  spirit  of  the 
times.  The  chains  of  sixty  centuries  are  breaking ;  the 
veils  of  night-like  ages  are  rent  in  sunder,  and  far 
through  opening  valleys  rich  with  the  nodding  harvest, 
and  far  over  lofty  hill-tops  glad  with  the  rising  morning, 
comes  the  great  march  of  humanity  set  to  triumphal 
music.  And  the  true  poet  sees,  and  feels,  and  embodies 
this  movement.  He  discerns  below  all  superficialities; 
he  overlooks  all  temporal  and  false  landmarks ;  he  speaks 
to  the  spiritual  and  the  unseen  in  man,  as  one  who  chiefly 
values  that  and  loves  it;  he  speaks  to  the  world- wide 
race  as  one  who  has  hope  for  it,  and  says,  "Rejoice  !  " 


THE  "  hours  of  communion  "  let  in  the  air  and  light  of 
heaven  upon  the  soul. 


SEEKING  Heaven  through  righteousness  is  not  seeking 
righteousness,   but  something  else ;  —  it  is  not   loving 
goodness  for  goodness'  sake,  but  for  its  rewards. 
19* 


222  LIVING    WORDS. 

MANY  people  seem  to  think  that  is  a  revival  of  religion 
in  which  a  great  deal  of  feeling  about  religion  appears. 
I  think  that  is  a  revival  of  religion  in  which  a  great  deal 
of  thought  about  religion  appears.  And  sometimes  when 
men  are  outwardly  very  calm  and  very  collected,  and 
make  no  extravagant  demonstrations,  they  may  be  really 
having  an  income  of  religious  life,  more  than  when  they 
are  simply  occupied  in  expressing  the  sense  of  great 
spiritual  realities  by  a  display  of  feeling.  We  must  have, 
as  the  basis  of  any  noble,  consistent  and  steady  religious 
life,  clear,  profound,  and  steady  thought. 


THE  inner  life,  with  its  thoughts,  its  conscience,  is 
supreme.  Its  voice  is  heard  above  all  outward  tumult, — 
it  projects  its  light  or  shadow  upon  the  universe.  The 
natural  world  is  at  once  its  instrument  and  its  instructor. 
As  we  become  true  to  our  better  nature —  loving  and  good 

—  so  do  we  learn  how  to  use  the  world  aright ;  so  do  all  the 
ordinances  of  life  appear  to  be  established  for  great  and 
wise  purposes.     The  day  is  not  only  for  labor,  and  the 
night  for  rest,  but  every  hour  and  every  event  is  that  we 
may  learn  to  trust  and  adore  God,  and  to  love  man  better, 

—  may  have  faith  in  adversity,  humility  in  success,  peni- 
tence for  sin,  strength  in  weakness,  and  support  in  death. 
This  is  the  great  end  of  life. 


LIVING    WORDS.  223 

THE  night  comes  for  the  purpose  of  checking  our  busy 
employment,  and  introducing  an  interval  of  repose  be- 
tween the  links  of  our  action  and  our  aspiration.  It 
draws  its  dim  curtain  around  the  field  of  toil.  It  buries 
the  objects  of  our  handiwork  in  darkness,  and  involves 
them  with  uncertainty.  It  comes  to  the  relief  of  the  ex- 
hausted body  and  the  tired  brain.  Our  powers,  harmon- 
izing with  the  diurnal  revolution  of  the  earth,  fail  with 
the  failing  light,  and  a  merciful  Providence  casts  around 
us  this  mantle  of  shadow,  and  snatches  us  from  our  occu- 
pation. The  night  comes  and  bestows  its  "beloved 
sleep  "  upon  the  bowed  and  the  weary,  replenishes  the 
veins  of  health,  imparts  mysterious  nourishment  to  the 
feeble,  and  wraps  the  sad  in  sweet  forgetfulness,  or  bears 
them  up  for  a  time  above  the  darkening  realities  of  life 
into  the  bliss  of  dreams.  It  comes,  however,  not  merely 
for  slumber,  but  that  there  may  be  a  change  of  action. 
It  calls  us  in  from  those  tasks  that  have  kept  in  play  all 
our  selfish  faculties,  to  the  delights  of  social  communion 
and  the  sanctities  of  home.  It  woos  the  body  from  its 
work  that  the  mind  may  take  up  its  implements.  It 
conceals  the  earth,  which  all  day  long  has  absorbed  our 
desires,  and  reveals  the  grandeur  of  the  universe  in  which 
we  float.  It  shows  a  field  of  activity  for  the  spirit  as  well 
as  for  our  material  powers,  —  a  field  whose  capacity  tran- 
scends any  worldly  occupation  as  far  as  thought  outleaps 
the  possibilities  of  the  muscles.  It  bids  the  strained  eye 


224  LIVING    WORDS. 

look  up  and  perceive  that  there  are  objects  of  love  and 
adoration  above  and  beyond  the  circle  of  the  morning 
purpose  or  the  noonday  effort. 


WE  give  such  a  theological  sense  to  our  words  that 
even  the  holiest  precepts  ring  like  counterfeit  coin.  But 
if  we  really  knew  that  to  love  Jesus  Christ  is  like  loving 
anything  else,  —  if  theological  or  religious  love  would 
only  mean  natural  love,  as  it  ought  to  mean,  —  how 
many  would  say,  "I  love  Jesus  Christ"  !  Infidels  and 
sceptics,  carping  at  miracles,  and  cutting  out  one  half  of 
the  New  Testament,  if  they  could  see  such  a  character  as 
that,  exemplified  in  such  a  beautiful  life,  standing  in  the 
gloriousness  of  its  meekness  and  the  majesty  of  its  holi- 
ness, would  come  to  it  as  if  drawn  by  the  law  of  at- 
traction. 


NOT  nations;-  not  armies,  have  advanced  the  race ;  but 
here  and  there,  in  the  course  of  ages,  an  individual  has 
stood  up  and  cast  his  shadow  over  the  world. 


WHEN  private  virtue  is  hazarded  upon  the  perilous 
cast  of  expediency,  the  pillars  of  the  republic,  however 
apparent  their  stability,  are  infected  with  decay  at  the 
very  centre. 


LIVING    WORDS.  225 

WHAT  marvel,  what  mystery,  what  tokens  of  the 
divine  presence,  in  this  familiar  act  of  slumber !  Con- 
sider into  what  regions  of  wonder  it  carries  you,  and  how 
near  it  brings  you' to  Gogl.  While  you  lie  there  so  un- 
conscious you  are  enthralled  by  a  power  which  you  can- 
not resist;  you  have  surrendered  to  it  your  dearest 
possessions;  you  have  lost  all  control  over  them;  your 
limbs  are  impotent;  your  faculties  are  disheveled,  and 
death's  twin  brother  presses  on  your  heart.  Heroes, 
statesmen,  and  kings  throw  aside  the  implements  of  their 
pomp  and  power,  as  a  child  throws  aside  its  toys,  to  lie 
down  to  rest  as  a  child  in  its  mother's  arms.  0 !  the 
wonderful  truth  is,  that  when  we  lie  down  to  rest  we  all 
do  lie,  as  it  were,  in  a  mother's  arms ;  for  a  love  as  tender 
as  a  mother's,  a  vigilance  far  more  tireless,  a  protection 
far  more  sure,  during  the  dark  and  silent  season,  is  at 
work  for  us,  keeping  the  delicate  life-springs  in  motion, 
and  the  chords  of  the  mind  in  tune.  There  you  sleep, 
and  while  you  rest  you  and  your  sleeping-chamber  are 
borne  through  great  segments  of  space  into  the  realms  of 
the  dawn,  —  into  the  splendors  of  a  new  morning.  You 
awake,  and  new,  fresh  life  rushes  through  every  artery ; 
weariness  arises,  strengthened  for  its  new  labor ;  poverty 
is  better  prepared  to  meet  its  lot  of  toil ;  and  sorrow  per- 
haps lifts  up  its  head  with  brighter  tears,  because  while 
it  slept  angels  of  faith  and  hope  whispered  to  it,  and  well- 
known  faces  have  beamed  upon  it  from  the  gates  of  heaven. 


226  LIVING     WORDS. 

IN  this  age  our  religion  is  too  much  of  the  combustibk 
kind,  —  a  sort  of  light- wood  dipped  in  turpentine,  —  all 
glow,  —  quick  up,  and  quick  down ;  and  too  many  are 
confining  their  experience  of  religion  to  the  experience  of 
rapture  and  religious  enjoyments. 


THE  dreamer  with  his  strange  and  splendid  conceit, 
the  weary  pilgrim  by  the  convent-gate,  the  untired  sup- 
plicant at  courts,  at  length  attains  his  wish.  The  sails 
are  hoisted,  the  prows  are  turned,  the  great  adventure 
lies  before.  Speed  on,  speed  on,  bold  Genoese  !  —  look 
straight  forward  !  —  hold  dauntlessly  to  your  thought ! 
The  lights  of  the  known  land,  sink  behind  you,  but  the 
heritage  of  your  fame  lies  before.  The  deep  is  hoary 
with  mystery,  the  compass  turns  from  its  point,  but  a 
divine  current  sweeps  you  on.  Your  heart  grows  faint 
at  mutiny,  delay,  and  solitude ;  but,  lo !  Providence 
tempts  you  with  its  tokens.  New  stars  rise  to  light 
you ;  birds  sing  in  your  tattered  sails ;  flowers  of  strange 
odor  drift  by  your  keel ;  and  a  new  world  is  found.  You 
sought  it  to  complete  the  geography  of  the  globe ;  God 
opened  it  to  complete  the  destiny  of  humanity  ! 


LET  no  one  despair  so  long  as  he  has  power  over  his 
own  soul. 


LIVING     WORDS. 


THE  idea  which  wrought  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
our  Revolutionary  heroes  —  in  the  deep  current  of  those 
Revolutionary  events  —  had  its  sanction,  and  its  first, 
clear,  consistent  utterance,  as  I  believe,  in  the  oracles  of 
Christianity.  It  found  a  sanctuary  in  the  breasts  of  its 
early  saints  and  martyrs.  It  passed  out  into  the  world, 
and  struck  the  chord  of  political  action  as  it  blended  with 
the  spirit  of  Teutonic  independence.  It  flourished  well 
in  England,  and  found  utterance  in  Parliament  and  from 
Tower-Hill.  The  cavalier  bore  it  in  his  haughty  con- 
sciousness to  his  new  home  in  Virginia.  The  Hollander 
accepted  it  in  his  sturdy  republicanism.  The  Puritan 
brought  it  in  the  Mayflower,  and  planted  it  on  Plymouth 
rock.  Indicated  now  and  then  by  some  isolated  enter- 
prise or  sharp  event,  its  influence  was  silently  engendered 
in  a  people's  history,  until  at  length  its  latent  electricity 
broke  out  in  one  quick  blaze  from  line  to  line,  in  one 
long  roll  of  drums  from  Lexington  to  Yorktown.  I  find 
that  idea  at  the  core  of  all  democracy ;  I  find  it  at  the 
heart  of  our  national  organism ;  and  without  it  democracy 
would  be  only  a  name,  and  our  nationality  illegitimate. 
That  idea,  fellow-citizens,  is  the  spiritual  worth  of  every 
man! 

In  •  the  very  personality  of  a  man,  it  respects  that 
"image  and  superscription"  of  God  which  distinguishes 
him  from  all  other  beings ;  respects  his  right  —  unless 
convicted  of  aggression  against  the  common  right  —  to 


"228  LIVING    WORDS. 

free  circulation  in  the  currency  of  the  universe,  with  hi? 
own  limbs,  mind  and  soul.  0,  it  was  worth  years  of 
revolution,  with  all  the  suffering  and  the  blood  !  —  worth 
your  precious  heart-drops,  0  martyrs  of  Lexington  !  — 
worth  your  cold  and  hunger,  0  soldiers  of  Yalley  Forge  ! 
— worth  your  prayers,  0  Washington !  when  gloomy  clouds 
hung  round  the  tents  of  our  Israel.  It  was  worth  all  this 
to  vindicate  and  achieve  the  great  fact  that  a  man  is 
priceless,  and  that,  poised  on  the  axis  of  personal  respon- 
sibility —  limited  by  nothing  but  the  curve  of  moral  law 
—  he  belongs  only  to  God.  It  was  worth  all  the  cost 
and  struggle  to  consummate  a  system  in  which,  primarily, 
the  man  does  not  exist  for  the  sake  of  the  State,  but  the 
State  for  the  sake  of  the  man. 


THE  idea  of  the  worth  and  right  of  the  individual  man 
lies  at  the  core  of  all  our  institutions.  Therefore  when 
this  idea  is  dishonored  upon  any  one  point  the  entire 
organism  of  our  national  privileges  is  stricken  with  heart 
disease. 


A  TRUE  individualism  is  not  adverse  but  favorable  to  a 
true  nationality.  In  developing  the  springs  of  personal 
worth  and  dignity  we  develop  the  springs  of  all  public 


greatness. 


LIVING     WORDS.  229 

EVERY  man  is  two-fold  in  his  nature.  He  is  both 
individual  and  social.  The  necessity  of  a  state  is  enfolded 
in  and  grows  out  of  the  very  conditions  of  his  being. 


PERILOUS  is  the  course  of  the  man  who  goes  out  amid 
the  temptations  of  public  life  without  prayerfulness, — 
without  a  sense  of  duty  caught  from  communion  with 
Christ.  If  in  his  own  heart  he  has  separated  his  politics 
from  his  religion,  I  know  not  from  what  else  he  may 
divorce  them. 


IN  how  many  instances  does  it  appear  that  high  public 
office  spoils  a  man !  Put  him  in  Jonathan,  he  comes  out 
Judas.  He  enters  as  a  respectable  merchant,  or  lawyer, 
or  farmer,  and  comes  out  a  politician  by  profession,  and  a 
thimble-rigger  by  practice. 


IF  the  first  line  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
could  have  been  read  just  after  it  was  penned,  in  some  old 
sanctuary  of  dead  kings,  and  sculptured  barons,  and 
drooping  heraldries,  it  would  almost  haye  made  the  feudal 
dust  and  the  aristocratic  bones  shake  and  rattle  in  the 
tombs,  to  hear  this  gospel  of  a  new  order,  in  which  man 
was  to  be  recognized  apart  from  his  accidents,  and  held 
his  titles  not  by  inheritance  but  by  achievement. 
20 


230  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  better  part  of  our  nature  gravitates  to  him  who 
preserves  his  courage  and  self-respect.  There  is  a  recog- 
nized chivalry  about  a  man  who  is  a  man.  Noble  souls 
know  each  other,  in  some  degree,  as  they  will  know  when 
we  no  longer  see  as  through  a  glass  darkly. 


THE  fathers  of  our  Revolution  abolished  orders  of 
nobility !  No  ;  they  affirmed  the  true  nobility ;  they  re- 
jected the  outward  patent,  and  took  up  the  inward  claim ; 
they  detected  the  right  divine  not  in  the  coronet  but  in 
the  brain,  —  the  heraldry  of  honor  not  in  the  crimson 
hand  but  the  diligent  palm,  and  rated  a  man  by  the 
quantity  of  his  virtue  and  his  greatness,  not  by  his  posi- 
tion on  some  old  genealogical  tree,  stuck  into  the  body  of 
William  the  Conqueror,  with  blood  at  the  roots,  and  gout 
in  the  fibres,  and  idiocy  at  the  top,  unless  recuperated  by 
plebian  sap.  Benjamin  Franklin  wore  the  most  appropri- 
ate court-dress  I  ever  heard  of.  At  the  Court  of  Ver- 
sailles he  appeared  in  the  dress  of  an  American  farmer. 
What  did  he  need  of  a  court-dress  whose  patent  of 
nobility  was  written  for  him  by  lightning  on  the  clouds  ? 


THERE  is  but  little  true  learning  where  nature  and 
humanity  have  been  neglected.  Cumbrous  and  useless  is 
that  knowledge  which  is  unbaptized  by  love  and  sympathy. 


LIVING    WORDS.  231 

THE  worst  scepticism  of  our  age '  is  not  that  of  ex- 
pressed doubt  or  open  denial,  but  that  which,  in  the  name 
of  faith  and  zeal,  would  hush  objection  and  check  con- 
troversy, and  is  so  fearful  of  the  present  as  to  distrust  the 
future. 


THE  thinker  fears  no  more  the  failure  of  the  truth 
than  he  fears  the  failure  of  God's  own  cisterns  from 
which  the  winds  blow.  It  may  do  for  the  ignorant  to  be 
timid,  whom  a  fallacy  can  tangle  and  a  false  statement 
blind ;  but  it  is  for  you,  0  scholar !  to  see  how  in  the 
intense  heat  of  trial  every  film  of  falsehood  melts  away 
from  truth,  and  the  severe  analysis  leaves  it  alone,  in  all 
the  beauty  of  its  proportion,  in  all  the  harmony  of  its 
relations. 


THERE  is  no  tariff  so  injurious  as  that  with  which 
sectarian  bigotry  guards  its  commodities.  It  dwarfs  the 
soul  by  shutting  out  truths  from  other  continents  of 
thought,  and  checks  the  circulation  of  its  own. 


WHEN  the  sky  is  obscured,  the  chart  torn,  the  compass 
lost,  man  raises  to  his  eyes  the  glass  of  faith,  and  sees 
through  the  mist  the  thread  of  love  quivering  down  from 
the  eternal  orb  and  drawing  him  on. 


232  LIVING     WORDS. 

0  GEOLOGIST !  chip  away  with  your  hammer,  to  the 
end  of  time ;  —  you  cannot  strike  away  one  grain  of  the 
truth  in  Jesus  Christ,  as  it  comes  to  my  soul.  0  ethnol- 
ogist !  trace  back  the  history  of  man  as  far  as  you  can ;  — 
you  cannot'  seal  up  this  spiritual  want  of  mine  which 
Christ  satisfies.  Each  thing  to  its  proper  domain :  sci- 
ence to  interpret  material  things,  —  to  unlock  the  bonds 
'of  nature ;  Christianity  to  comfort  the  soul  and  lift  it  up. 
But  if  there  does  come  a  collision  between  the  two,  — 
which  I  conceive  impossible,  —  of  what  have  you  the 
strongest  evidence  :  that  the  world  is  six  millions  of  years 
old,  or  that  Jesus  Christ  comforts  you  in  sorrow,  lifts  you 
up  when  you  are  bowed  down,  and  brings  you  to  an  ideal 
that  answers  your  wants  and  aspirations?  The  soul's 
evidence  is  the  highest,  and  must  be  heard.  Let  Newton 
and  Le  Verrier  unfold  the  starry  heavens,  and  let  us  hear 
the  music  of  the  spheres ;  but  at  the  same  time  the  soul 
stands  up  and  says,  "  I,  too,  am  a  reality ;  I  know  that  I 
have  a  Father,  for  I  have  felt  him ;  I  know  that  I  have  a 
Saviour,  for  he  has  lifted  me  up  and  blessed  me.  Science 
is  doubtless  true ;  but  if  it  is  not  I  know  that  I  am,  for  I 
know  that  I  feel." 


EACH  thing  lives  according  to  its  kind :  the  heart  by 
love,  the  intellect  by  truth,  the  higher  nature  of  man 
by  intimate  communion  \viih  God. 


LIVING    WORDS.  233 

CHRISTIANITY  reaches  down  from  heaven  this  golden 
ladder,  by  which  the  loftiest  soul  and  the  lowliest  intellect 
can  begin  to  climb  toward  God  —  the  ladder  of  the  truth 
of  God's  paternity. 


How  many  prayers  and  forms  of  worship  are  merely 
paying  compliments  to  God  from  the  meanest  and  basest 
motives,  hoping  thereby  to  creep  into  the  favor  of  God, 
—  complimenting  him  because  we  think  it  will  be  well  for 
us  to  do  so. 


THE  human  soul  is  so  constituted  that  mere  power  or 
sovereignty,  without  regard  to  the  moral  qualities  of  such 
power  and  sovereignty,  cannot  be  truly  reverenced.  We 
may  fear  it ;  we  may  cower  in  terror  before  it ;  we  may 
defer  to  it  with  trembling  and  abated  breath ;  but  the 
whole  sincere  reverence  of  the  heart  we  can  give  only  to 
goodness,  and,  in  the  case  of  God,  to  infinite  goodness, 
•which  by  its  very  nature  is  infinite  holiness,  justice,  and 
majesty. 

GOD  will  not  forsake  you,  old  sinner ;  he  will  not 
leave  even  you.  You  are  cared  for  by  him ;  and  though 
you  may  be  hidden  under  the  rubbish  of  all  your  sins,  — 
though  you  may  be  cast  away  and  scorned  by  men,  —  he 
will  hunt  for  you  as  for  a  hidden  jewel. 
20* 


234  LIVING    WORDS. 

ALL  men,  however  low,  weak,  and  vile  they  may  be, 
may  utter  the  words,  "Our  Father;"  and  before  this 
fact  all  outward  distinctions  shrivel  away,  and  all  sophis- 
tries yield  to  it.  Your  pompous  ethnologists,  who  decide 
from  the  hue  of  the  skin  or  the  shape  of  the  skull,  do  not 
go  deep  enough  to  mark  out  the  limits  between  us.  The 
dimmest  asteroid  of  a  soul,  that  here,  in  its  far-away 
world,  revolves  in  the  narrowest  orbit  of  human  experi- 
ence, receives  some  light  from  the  Fountain  of  Light,  and 
feels  the  throb  of  the  same  "infinite  Sun.  However  rudely 
spoken  —  by  the  child  at  his  mother's  side,  by  the  savage, 
by  the  poor,  despised,  and  desolate — it  is  the  same.  How 
great  that  spirit  must  be,  and  how  surely  immortal,  that 
can  say  to  God,  "Our  Father"!  The  nabob  can  say 
this,  and  he  can  say  no  more.  The  beggar  in  the  street 
can  say  as  much.  It  rises  from  the  same  plane  of 
humanity.  It  has  no  further  to  travel,  whether  breathed 
in  the  luxurious  chamber,  or  ascending  from  the  lips  of 
the  outcast,  up  to  the  starry  spaces  of  the  sky.  What  a 
bond  of  unity,  which  takes  the  round  earth,  with  all  its  sea- 
sons and  climes,  and  condenses  it  into  one  family  !  —  when 
from  the  territories  even  of  contending  nationalities,  slaves 
and  freemen,  rich  and  poor,  all  come  together  in  this !  It 
is  the  key-note  of  the  prelude  to  universal  harmony. 


TRUTH  in  its  most  original  expression  is  always  lyrical. 


LIVING    WORDS.  235 

IN  the  Hartz  Mountains,  in  Germany,  men  sometimes 
see  an  awful,  shadowy,  colossal  image  walking  over  the 
heights  like  a  majestic  demon ;  but  after  all  they  find  it 
is  only  the  projection  of  themselves, — only  the  shadow  of 
the  advancing  man  thrown  upon  the  mist  of  the  moun- 
tain. So  men  in  their  superstition,  sensuality,  and  gross 
idolatry  project  a  God  who  is  only  the  shadow  of  them- 
selves. 


THE  doctrine  of  God  the  Father  is  the  central  doctrine 
of  the  gospel.  Around  it  the  entire  system  moves.  Take 
it  away  and  we  should  have  another  —  a  different  gospel. 
Take  away  the  truth  that-  comes  in  the  account  of  the 
prodigal  son,  and  in  other  instances  of  that  kind  of  God's 
fatherhood,  and  you  may  have  a  Christianity  to  preach, 
but  it  would  not  be  Christ's  Christianity. 


GOD  is  our  Father ;  and  yet  this  relation,  compara- 
tively, is  as  though  it  were  not  until  we  realize  it. 


IF  you  should  take  the  human  heart  and  listen  to  it 
it  would  be  like  listening  to  a  sea-shell :  you  would  hear 
in  it  the  hollow  murmur  of  the  infinite  ocean  to  which  it 
belongs,  from  which  it  draws  its  profoundest  inspiration, 
and  for  which  it  yearns. 


236  LIVING    WORDS. 

MAN  is  concentric :  you  have  to  take  fold  after  fold 
off  of  him  before  you  get  to  the  centre  of  his  personality. 
You  must  get  below  his  animal  nature,  habits,  customs, 
affections,  daily  life,  and  sometimes  go  away  down  into 
the  heart  of  the  man,  before  you  know  what  is  really  in 
him.  But  when  you  get  into  the  last  core  of  these  con- 
centric rings  of  personality  you  find  a  sense  of  the  in- 
finite, —  a  consciousness  of  immortality  linked  to  some- 
thing higher  and  better. 


IF  you  could  take  away  every  other  proof  of  y  the  exist- 
ence of  a  God,  — if  you.  could  blot  out  the  universe  with 
all  its  glorious  elements  of  harmony,  order,  and  wonder,  — 
yet,  looking  into  the  deep  soul  of  man,  and  beholding 
there  a  sense  of  sin,  —  a  feeling  of  obligation,  of  duty,  of 
responsibility, — you  would  be  compelled  to  say,  This  soul 
of  man  proves  the  existence  of  a  moral,  intelligent  source, 
over  and  above  the  material  world. 


THE  nearest  symbolism  of  God's  mercy  is  the  relation 
that  the  mother  bears  to  her  child.  It  is  a  constant 
blessing,  which  flows  over  our  lives,  and  is  still  strong  even 
when  we  become  gray,  and  the  dust  of  the  grave  begins 
to  settle  upon  us. 


LIVING    WORDS.  237 

DAMAGE  Revelation !     You  might  just  as  well  suppose 
that  a  man  could  damage  the  throne  of  the  Almighty  as 

to  damage  the  essential  truth  of  Revelation.     What  dif- 

• 

ference  does  it  make  whether  this  world  is  six  thousand 
or  six  million  years  old,  to  the  wounded  spirit  that  feels 
the  balm  of  Christ's  comfort  ?  —  to  the  tempest-tossed 
BOU!  that  Christ  has  lifted  up  ?  —  to  the  spiritual  experi- 
ence that  sees  in  God  its  highest  ideal,  and  mounts  up- 
ward continually?  There  is  no  more  connection  be- 
tween the  two  things  than  there  is  between  duty  and  a 
stone,  —  between  goodness  and  a  tree, — between  a  thing 
utterly  spiritual  and  utterly  material. 


THE  child's  grief  throbs  against  the  round  of  its  little 
heart  as  heavily  as  the  man's  sorrow ;  and  the  one  finds 
as  much  delight  in  his  kite  or  drum  as  the  other  in  strik- 
ing the  springs  of  enterprise  or  soaring  on  the  wings  of 
fame. 


As  mind  is  superior  to  matter,  so  are  ideas  more  potent 
and  enduring  than  prodigies  of  physical  might.  Archim- 
edes' thought  is  stronger  than  his  lever.  The  mind 
that  planned  the  pyramids  was  more  powerful  than  the 
hands  that  piled  them.  The  inventors  of  the  mariner's 
compass  and  the  telescope  have  outdone  the  Macedonian, 
and  won  new  worlds. 


238  LIVING    WORDS. 

IN  the  act  of  communion  with  God,  in  the  realization 
of  immortality,  in  the  aspirations  and  the  idea  of  perfec- 
tion, there  is  a  depth  and  scope  of  being  from  which  all 
sensual  estimates  of  time  drop  away. 


IN  proportion  to  the  essential  value  and  the  destiny  of 
anything  it  is  slow  in  coming  to  maturity.  The  shining 
insect  of  the  pools  is  born  and  perishes  in  a  day.  The 
-alchemy  of  sun  and  air,  of  wet  and  sunshine,  is  long  in 
bringing  the  oak  to  its  climax.  Our  mortal  body  —  this 
curious  casement  of  the  soul  —  grows,  decays,  and  dies 
while  a  star,  the  home  of  many  souls,  beats  around  its 
orbit,  and  fulfils  but  one  of  its  stupendous  years. 

If  this  be  the  law,  then  we  must  expect  that  mind  will 
be  long  indeed  in  coming  to  maturity.  In  fact  it  has 
never  reached  perfection,  even  in  the  rarest  individual 
instances.  And  its  inexhausted  capacities,  its  unsatisfied 
desires,  suggest  what  Revelation  has  confirmed,  —  that 
this  is  but  its  introductory  state,  and  that  it  goes  hence  to 
the  scope  of  immortal  action. 


THE  intellect  is  the  most  neutral  of  all  our  quali- 
ties  It  is  a  light ;  and  no  one  will  object  to  its 

being  kindled  except  those  who  by  that  objection  virtually 
confess  that  they  fear  the  light. 


LIVING    WORDS.  239 

THREESCORE  years  and  ten !  Were  all  these  adapta- 
tions created  merely  for  a  life  of  threescore  years  and  ten  ? 
Are  these  heavens  so  garnished  with  beauty,  is  this  earth 
so  varied  and  fertile,  merely  to  gratify  that  -which  in  a 
little  while  will  die  and  return  to  dust?  Is  it  all  to 
pamper  a  body  that  presently  becomes  weak  and  diseased 
and  crumbles  back  to  its  elements  ?  Or  does  this  beauty 
without  speak  to  a  capacity  for  beauty  within  ?  Do  these 
wonderful  works  appeal  to  a  power  of  knowing  and  pro- 
gressing, that  shall  know  and  progress  when  its  mortal 
tabernacle  shall  be  lost  in  the  processes  of  change?  If 
this  life  is  all,  much  is  there  in  it  thatTis  incomprehensi- 
ble. We  cannot  comprehend  why  we  should  desire  to 
know,  and  never  be  satisfied  with  knowledge ;  —  why  we 
should  be  tempted  and  suffer.  But  if  there  is  another 
life  we  can  discern  a  reason  for  these  things.  In  the  fact 
that  we  attain  to  no  complete  knowledge  now,  but  only 
such  as  deepens  the  capacity  and  the  thirst  for  more,  there 
gleams  out  the  deeper  fact  that  we  shall  know  more  by 
and  by.  Powers  are  developed  here  until  they  are  capa- 
ble of  higher  development  in  other  portions  of  God's 
limitless  universe ;  and  suffering  and  temptation  discipline 
the  soul  for  a  sphere  where  temptation  shall  no  more  be 
needed,  and  where  the  spirit  shall  go  forward  to  practise 
upon  what  it  has  learned.  Viewing  this  life,  then,  as  the 
vestibule  and  preparation  for  another,  we  can  account  for 
many  of  its  mysteries.  But  if  not,  why,  then,  does  the 


240  LIVING    WORDS. 

body  suffer  from  the  wants  of  the  mind  ?  Why,  if  this 
world  is  merely  a  theatre  for  human  fame  or  human 
pleasure,  —  merely  a  mart  for  the  heaping  up  of  gold 
and  silver,  —  why  do  we  think  of  immortality,  or  care  for 
it  ?  Why  do  the  mountain-summits  seem  near  to  another 
world  ?  Why  from  the  depths  of  night,  from  worlds  of 
unapproachable  glory,  come  influences  that  kindle  aspira- 
tions for  something  higher  and  purer?  Why  do  we 
fancy  the  loved  and  the  lost  walking  upon  some  glorious 
shore,  with  palms  about  their  brows  ?  Why  do  we  truly 
honor  an  upright  man  more  than  a  king,  and  see  in  pa- 
tient endurance  and  forgiving  love  the  highest  dignity 
and  the  best  victory?  Why  are  prayer,  and  goodness, 
and  faith  so  much  more  worthy  in  our  eyes  than  mere 
bodily  skill  or  beauty  ?  Because  we  do  not  cease  to  be, 
at  the  grave,  —  the  outward  things  of  this  life  are  not  our 
chief  ends;  but  our  true  end  is  spiritual  perfection  and 
immortal  life  ! 


I  WOULD  rather  fall  into  the  hands  of  a  good-natured 
sinner  than  of  a  sour  old  saint. 


THE  reason  why  men  act  in  masses  as  they  would  not 
act  in  units,  is,  that  they  are  not  chivalric  enough  to 
stand  by  their  own  souls. 


LIVING    WORDS.  241 

"  ONE  self-approving  hour  whole  years  outweighs 
Of  stupid  starers  and  of  loud  huzzas." 

It  is  true.  There  is  more  life  in  "one  self-approving 
hour,"  one  act  of  benevolence,  one  work  of  self-dis- 
cipline, than  in  threescore  years  and  ten  of  mere  sen- 
sual existence.  Go  out  among  the  homes  of  the  poor,  lift 
up  the  disconsolate,  administer  comfort  to  the  forlorn  ;  in 
some  way,  as  it  may  come  across  your  path,  or  lie  in  the 
sphere  of  your  duty,  do  a  deed  of  kindness ;  and  in  that 
one  act  you  shall  live  more  than  in  a  year  of  selfish  in- 
dulgence and  indolent  ease,  —  yea,  more  than  in  a  life- 
time of  such.  The  poet,  with  his  burning,  immortal 
lines,  while  doing  his  work,  lives  all  the  coming  ages  of 
his  fame.  From  every  marble  feature  that  he  chisels 
the  sculptor  draws  an  intensity  of  being  that  cannot  be 
imparted  by  a  mere  extension  of  years.  The  philanthro- 
pist, in  his  walks  of  mercy  and  his  ministrations  of  love, 
lives  more  comprehensively  than  another  may  in  a  cen- 
tury. His  is  the  fathomless  bliss  of  benevolence  —  the 
experience  of  God.  The  martyr,  in  his  dying  hour,  with 
his  face  shining  like  an  angel's,  does  not  live  longer,  but 
he  lives  more  than  all  his  persecutors. 


THIS  is  not  only  the  oldest  but  the  best  time.     It  con- 
tains tho  best  life  and  fruition  of  all  the  past. 
21 


242  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  mother  acts  upon  the  world  as  surely  as  the  boy 
develops  into  the  man.  She  is  not  a  public  actor  in  the 
drama  of  human  existence,  but  she  appears  in  all  its  mov- 
ing forms,  and  in  all  its  history.  Her  influence  is  the 
electric  life  that  plays  unseen  amid  it  all,  and  projects 
and  shapes  its  phenomena.  That  devoted  philanthropy  is 
the  embodiment  of  her  spirit ;  —  that  noble  achievement 
is  the  crystalization  of  her  thought.  The  patriotism  you 
admire  was  kindled  by  her  tradition  and  her  song.  The 
eloquence  that  thrills  you  caught  its  inspiration  from  her 
lips.  The  soul  "that  climbs  the  starry  paths  of  science, 
or  explores  the  crypts  beneath,  owes  to  her  its  direction 
and  its  enthusiasm ;  and  the  holy  life  that  blesses  man 
and  glorifies  God  is  the  answer  to  her  prayers.  Unper- 
ceived,  she  acts  in  the  bustle  of  the  mart  and  the  aspira- 
tions of  the  forum,  from  the  magistrate's  chair,  in  the 
pulpit,  and  on  the  throne.  And  the  ordinary  mass  of  life, 
with  its  individual  joys  and  sorrows,  good  and  evil,  so 
common,  yet  so  important,  is  her  result. 


ALL  that  Christ  is  after  is  the  heart.  Jesus  went 
about  as  a  man  searching  for  a  lost  treasure.  He  went 
to  the  poor,  downcast  sinner,  and  tried  to  find  his  heart. 
If  he  could  get  that  it  was  all  he  came  from  heaven  to 
claim. 


LIVING    WORDS.  243 

GOD  is  glorious  in  everything  he  has  made.  His 
glory  is  revealed  in  the  little  blade  of  grass  that  begins 
to  peep  from  underneath  the  \vinter  ice ;  in  the  planet 
that  flames  with  splendor  in  the  heavens ;  but  by  ribthing 
so  much,  upon  this  earth,  as  in  man,  a  creature  of  intel- 
ligence, of  immortal  capacity,  of  ever-growing  affections 
and  powers  ;  and  in  the  perfection  of  man  —  in  the  full 
'  unfolding  harmony  and  transfiguration  of  his  nature  —  is 
God  glorified. 


PHYSICAL  force    is    sectional,   and  acts    in    defined 
methods.     But  knowledge  defies  gravitation,  and  is  not 

thwarted  by  space Man  gains  wider  dominion  by 

his  intellect  than  by  his  right  arm.  The  mustard-seed  of 
thought  is  a  pregnant  treasury  of  vast  results.  Like  the 
germ  in  the  Egyptian  tombs,  its  vitality  never  perishes ; 
and  its  fruit  will  spring  up  after  it  has  been  buried  for 
long  ages. 


THE  man  who  lives  merely  for  the  purpose  of  pumping 
gratification  out  of  all  the  world  into  himself,  and  appro- 
priating God's  benefits  without  regard  to  others,  is  the 
meanest  creature  in  the  world,  —  nothing  but  a  sponge 
with  brains,  sucking  in  everything,  and  letting  out 
nothing. 


244  LIVING    WORDS. 

To  shed  upon  men  an  intellectual  light — to  elevate 
them  by  force  of  thought  —  is  the  noblest  of  all  missions. 
Honor  to  the  idealists,  whether  philosophers  or  poets. 
They-have  improved  us  by  mingling  with  our  daily  pur- 
suits great  and  transcendant  conceptions.  They  have 
thrown  around  our  sensual  life  the  grandeur  of  a  better, 
and  drawn  us  up  from  contacts  with  the  temporal  and  the 
selfiahj  to  communion  with  beauty,  truth,  and  goodness. ' 
They  do  a  great  part  of  the  work  that  is  done.  There 
must  be  ideas  before  action.  The  whole  natural  world  is 
but  the  embodiment  of  ideas.  The  spade  in  the  laborer's 
hand,  the  plough-share  in  the  furrow,  was  once  an  idea. 
Once  tie  steamship  was  only  an  airy,  bodiless  thing,  sail- 
ing through  seas  of  thought  in  Fulton's  mind.  The 
idealist  dies,  but  his  conception  lives  in  physical  agencies 
that  change  the  face  of  nature,  —  in  moral  movements 
that  bless  and  advance  humanity. 


You  think  it  was  an  awful  thing  for  Judas  to  betray 
Jesus.  How  many  betray  him  for  less  than  thirty  pieces 
of  silver !  You  think  it  was  a  terrible  thing  for  Peter  to 
tell  such  a  cowardly  lie,  and  skulk  from  his  master. 
How  many  do  the  same  thing,  when  they  deny  their  re- 
ligious faith,  —  when  they  go  to  places  where  it  is  un- 
popular, and  shrink  from  avowing  it,  or  perhaps  disavow 
it  altogether  ? 


LIVING    WORDS.  245 

ACROSS  the  sweep  of  ages  come  the  prophet's  wWds, 
"  Make  you  a  new  heart  and  a  new  spirit."  There  is 
nothing  vague  or  mysterious  about  it.  Change  your 
affections  if  they  are  selfish ;  change  your  aim  i£  it  is 
low ;  lift  up  your  eyes  to  that  mark  of  the  high  calling 
to  which  Christ  draws  you,  and  let  the  spirit  that  was  in 
him  be  in  you.  That  is  making  a  new  heart.  Take 
your  heart  with  earnest  purpose  and  fervent  prayer  to  the 
cross  of  Christ,  hold  it  up  as  a  chalice,  and  let  him  fill  it 
with  his  divine  excellence  and  divine  self-sacrifice,  and 
then,  in  the  possession  of  his  quickening  spirit,  you  will 

have  a  new  heart. 

f 

RELIGION  is  felt  to  be  —  though  often  very  vaguely, 

* 

very  fitfully  —  a  vital  interest  in  the  world,  —  something 
that  cannot  be  voted  out  of  the  universe  ;  something  that 
will  push  its  way,  and  make  its  claim,  no  matter  what 
other  interests  are  crowded  on  the  human  heart. 


CHRISTIANITY  is  in  the  van  of  every  movement  march- 
ing for  the  deliverance  of  man.  It  rebukes  and  smitea 
in  the  very  face  every  sophism  that  would  hold  human 
beings  in  slavery.  It  stands  for  the  deliverance  of  man 
—  every  body,  and  soul,  and  heart  of  man  —  from  all 
evil  thought  and  evil  deeds. 
21* 


246  LIVING    WORDS 


do  not  like  fanaticism  in  anything  ;  but  if  we  must 
have  it  at  all,  let  us  have  the  fanaticism  of  religion  rather 
than  that  of  worldliness.  For  the  most  fanatical  man  of 
the  two  is  he  that  buries  his  soul  up  in  bullion,  grovels  in 
the  earth,  and  lives  like  a  barnacle  on  this  planet,  without 
recognizing  anything  higher  or  better.  I  would  rather 
see  a  fanatic  in  religion  than  in  worldliness.  That  old 
fanatic,  Simeon,  who  founded  a  sect  called  "Pillar  Saints," 
who  stood  ten  years  on  the  top  of  a  pillar,  in  sun  and 
storm,  drenched  and  dried,  weather-beaten  and  baked,  — 
who  lived  and  died  thera,  —  was  at  least  so  much  nearer 
heaven  than  the  fanatic  who  was  groping  below. 


THERE  are  some  who  try  to  preserve  a  sort  of  balance 
between  the  spirit  that  makes  this  world  supreme,  which 
of  course  dissolves  all  moral  distinction  between  right  and 
wrong,  and  the  spirit  that  makes  God  supreme,  which 
claims  as  right  the  love  of  right  only.  There  are  some 
who  wish  to  keep  in  with  both  these  elements.  They 
want  the  world  and  they  want  heaven.  They  try  to  live 
on  both  sides  of  the  fence,  and  they  hope  to  postpone  the 
inevitable  collision  between  the  two  forces.  It  is  like 
compromising  with  a  cancer,  or  holding  negotiations  with 
the  yellow  fever.  You  cannot  cheat  six  days  in  the 
week,  and  get  into  heaven  with  a  good,  long  leap  on 
Sunday. 


LIVING    WORDS.  247 

JUST  in  proportion  as  we  come  near  to  Christ  we  do 
not  create  diversity,  but  unitj.  For  in  coming  not  to 
opinions  about  Jesus,  but  to  Jesus  himself,  \ve  come 
together.  And  there  is  the  only  source  of  opinion  for 
the  Christian  church.  Let  opinions  be  ventilated,  and 
forms  of  examining  and  finding  out  the  truth  be  dis- 
cussed ;  but  after  all  the  church  comes  together  around 
the  bleeding  heart  of  Jesus,  as  the  first  church  did  in  the 
upper  room  at  Jerusalem.  It  was  not  opinions  about  his 
character  —  it  was  not  schemes  of  salvation  set  forth  in 
theological  dogmas  —  that  boug^  those  twelve  together ; 
but  the  central  Christ  himself.  And  the  great  church 
that  streamed  out  from  that  little  nucleus,  through  all 
ages,  and  in  all  lands,  —  that  great  church,  with  its 
Roman  Catholic  complexity  and  its  Quaker  simplicity, 
its  Unitarian  freedom,  its  Universalist  love,  its  Presby- 
terian assertions  of  the  grand  doctrine"  of  God's  sove- 
reignty, —  whatever  its  peculiar  form,  the  great  church 
has  its  only  principle  of  unity  in  that  bleeding  heart  of 
Christ  and  our  ability  to  come  to  him. }  And  when  you 
bring  each  atom  of  that  round  world  of  Christendom  to 
that  central  life  of  Christ,  you  have  a  unity  which  you 
can  never  have  by  your  dogmas  and  creeds. 


THAT  which  survives,  and  never  dies,  and  triumphs  in 
the  end,  is  the  right,  —  the  true  only. 


248  LIVING    WORDS. 

0,  HOW  affecting  is  that  truth  —  God's  sympathy  for 
us  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ !  You  look  at  the  New 
Testament,  perhaps,  as  an  old,  dry,  hard  book,  with 
Paul's  epistles  and  John's  apocalypse  at  the  end  of  it, 
and  these  beautiful  sayings  scattered  here  and  there 
through  the  gospels,  but  all  the  meaning  of  them  worn 
out  and  rubbed  away,  because  you  have  read  them  with 
such  an  unsympathizing  spirit.  If  you  would  only  take 
up  the  New  Testament  as  a  declaration  of  God's  sympa- 
thy with  man,  —  if  you  would  realize  that  where  Christ 
touches  the  blind  eye  thq§e  God  pities  human  infirmities, 
where  he  blesses  the  little  child  there  God  shows  his  love 
for  those  who  are  so  dear  to  us,  and  where  he  looks 
mercifully  upon  the  debased,  sensual  man,  there  God's 
mercy  is  shown  forth,  —  it  would  be  to  you  a  living  vol- 
ume, full  of  regenerating  power. 


THE  most  authentic   type  of  human  depravity  is  a 
thoroughly  unprincipled  politician. 


EEAL  homage  to  Christ  is  not  in  the  apprehension  of 
his  rank  in  the  universe,  but  in  the  possession  of  his 

spirit Of  what  value   are  all   your  waving  of 

palms,  and  high-sounding  hosannas,  if  your  hearts  are  not 
cast  at  his  feet  ? 


LIVING    WORDS.  249 

MEN  may  attribute  the  advantages  of  our  civilization  to 
this  thing  and  that  thing ;  but  the  deep  spirit  of  all  the 
best  movements  of  society  comes  from  the  life  and  teach- 

* 

ings  of  Jesus  Christ. 


occupy  a  more  prominent  and  interesting  station 
than  young  men.  They  will  immediately  succeed  our 
fathers  in  the  scenes  of  active  life,  and  they  exert  a 
powerful  influence  upon  the  country  and  the  age.  The 
aspect  of  the  present  takes  much  of  its  coloring  from 
them ;  the  hopes  of  the  future  cluster  around  them. 
Aged  patriotism,  philanthropy,  piety,  turn  their  dim  eyes 
to  them,  and  behold  as  in  a  mirror  the  promise  of  coming 
years.  Their  hands  are  already  upon  those  golden  chords 
of  society  which  are  its  bonds  of  conservation ;  and  in  a 
little  while  it  will  depend  upon  them  whether  they  shall 
be  marred  or  brightened,  —  whether  they  shall  be  pre- 
served or  torn  asunder. 


HE  cannot  be  the  true  scholar,  the  true  thinker,  who 

is  not  a  moral,  a  spiritual  man That  which  biases 

from  goodness,  violates  conscience,  and  perverts  the  will 
cannot  be  favorable  to  true  intellectual  culture.  Only 
by  sympathy  with  truth  and  excellence  can  we  climb  to 
the  knowledge  of  them. 


250  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  charter  of  man's  liberty  is  in  his  soul,  not  his 

estate No  piled-up  wealth,  no  social  station,  no 

throne  reaches  as  high  as  that  spiritual  plane  upon  which 
every  human  being  stands  by  virtue  of  his  humanity. 


WHAT  is  intellectual  culture  worth  without  the  moral  ? 
What  to  us  the  use  of  poetry,  history,  of  all  forms  of 
knowledge,  except  through  largeness  of  the  intellectual 
vision  to  purify  the  heart,  and  to  bring  us  to  spiritual 
perfection  ?  Without  this,  knowledge  is  worse  than  an 
abstraction,  and  in  such  a  case  we  can  conceive  of  a 
splendid  intellect  only  as  we  can  conceive  of  a  star,  drift- 
ing through  space  without  adaptation,  without  an  orbit, 
without  a  centripetal  law. 


TAKING  the  material  standard  as  the  exclusive  stand- 
ard of  life,  a  man  becomes  a  mere  instrument  in  pursuit 
of  popularity,  of  office,  or  any  other  worldly  advantage, 
with  a  soul  to  let,  and  a  self- serviceable  conscience 
thrown  in,  like  diplomatists  that  play  all  manner  of  vari- 
ations upon  one  selfish  string, — slimy  politicians  who  have 
wriggled  through  every  kennel,  and  left  their  zig-zag 
trail  upon  most  opposite  measures  and  most  inconsistent 
platforms. 


LIVING    WORDS.  251 

IT  does  not  require  great  intellect  to  see  plain,  palpable 
facts ;  but  marshal  before  a  man  a  truth  that  strikes  at 
his  interest,  and  you  cannot  make  him  see  it  with  all  the 
logic  you  can  link  from  the  morning  stars  to  the  earth, 
because  he  has  a  different  standard  of  valuation  from 
yours. 


THE  highest  power  in  the  universe  is  moral  power ;  for 
the  Being  who  buoys  up  and  sustains  all  things  is  a 
moral  being.  Once  this  great  truth  was  revealed  to  men. 
They  saw  the  highest  power  embodied  in  a  sacred  person- 
ality. It  shamed  the  brawny  grandeur  of  heathen  Jove5 
and  paled  the  intellectual  glory  of  Plato.  God,  whose 
power  is  but  symbolized  in  the  material  forces,  the  pro- 
cession of  whose  thought  is  the  order  and  beauty  of  the 
universe,  is  in  himself  love,  which  is  the  synonyme  of  all 
righteousness.  And  he  who  would  climb  to  the  highest 
knowledge,  and  share  something  of  its  absolute  power, 
must  ascend  not  by  intellectual  formulas,  but  by  rectitude 
of  heart  and  affinity  of  spirit. 


A  MAN  that  simply  loads  himself  down  with  posses- 
sions of  which  he  has  no  actual  need,  when-  he  dies  slips 
out  of  them  —  as  a  little  insect  might  slip  out  of  some 
parasite  shell  into  which  it  has  ensconced  itself — into  the 
grave,  and  is  forgotten. 


252  LIVING    WORDS. 

COUNTLESS  are  the  hosts  who  have  yielded  to  the  sug- 
gestion of  evil  lusts.  Conscripts  drawn  by  God  to  fight 
the  battle  of  life,  and  to  scale  Alpine  heights  of  duty, 
they  either  know  not  or  heed  not  the  summons,  but  leap 
without  restraint  to  gratification,  or  lie  basking  in  the 
sunshine  of  voluptuous  ease.  Fools  of  appetite !  Floats 
on  the  stream  of  impulse  !  Deserters  from  the  campaign 
to  which  God  has  called  them  !  How  often  they  drop  by 
the  way-side,  bruised  and  torn,  —  victims  of  their  own 
passions,  —  cast  into  the  fire  and  the  water  by  the  devil 
within  them!  Spirits  made  a  little  lower  than  the 
angels,  fallen  much  lower  than  the  brute.  Immortal 
souls  soaked  into  the  flesh,  and  sharing  the  corruption  of 
the  bones.  Dying,  it  may  be,  in  the  streets ;  and,  as  the 
waves  of  death  roll  over  them,  lifting  dim  eyes  to  the 
starry  immensity  above  them,  unconscious  that  it  is  .more 
limited  than  their  destiny,  and  that  those  lights  are  glim- 
mering from  eternal  shores,  towards  which  they  drift. 


WE  know  how  much  is  put  on  purposely  for  the  public 
gaze,  and  has  no  other  intention  than  to  be  seen.  How 
hollow  are  many  of  the  smiles,  and  gay  looks,  and 
smooth  decencies !  And  even  the  complexion  of  some, 
with  its  red  and  white,  is  more  unsubstantial  than  all  the 
rest;  for  it  is  in  danger  of  being  washed  away  by  the 
first  shower. 


LIVING    WORDS.  253 

HOY}  many  men  you  see  in  this  world  who  have  be- 
come merely. the  pack-horses  of  their  own  possessions; 
who  go  through  life  the  veriest  slaves  to  that  which  they 
toil  for,  wasting  their  health  and  strength,  and,  it  may 
be,  their  higher  powers,  —  even  their  consciences  and 
souls,  —  in  the  mere  effort  to  accumulate  !  How  many 
men  of  this  sort  you  see  stumbling  along  in  life  like  a 
camel  with  his  load !  In  fact  you  do  not  see  the  man 
himself,  —  only  the  pack  of  his  possessions  on  his  back. 
He  finds  it  hard  work  to  squeeze  through  the  needle's 
eye ;  and  when  he  dies  he  is  hardly  missed ;  for  that  by 
which  he  was  known  —  that  of  which  he  was  the  slave, 
and  not  the  master  —  remains  behind. 


SIN  is  the  great  element  of  hell,  and  where  it  exists 
heaven  cannot  be.  Its  triumphs  are  deeper  than  those 
of  time,  and  more  terrible  than  death.  It  has  swept  over 
the  moral  world,  more  glorious  than  the  physical,  and 
blighted  the  beautiful  and  desecrated  the  holy.  It  has 
scattered  abroad  and  afar  the  seeds  of  envy,  war,  lust,  in- 
temperance, murder,  and  all  abomination  and  iniquity. 
It  has  drawn  man  aside  from  innocence  and  rectitude,  and 
he  has  gone  forth  from  the  joy  of  Eden  with  a  bowed 
head  and  a  burning  heart;  and,  worse  than  all,  it  has 
spread  a  veil  athwart  his  moral  vision,  and  alienated  him 
from  his  Maker. 
22 


254  LIVING    WORDS. 

I  HAVE  no  great  faith  in  the  man  -who  simply  has  a 
nest  of  habits  without  any  guiding,  settled  principle  ;  hut 
if  he  can  build  around  him  an  inclosure  of  moral  habits 
it  will  do  him  good.  They  may  serve  the  same  purpose 
as  a  go-cart  for  a  little  child  to  learn  to  walk  by,  sup- 
porting him  while  he  is  weak,  until  he  is  able  to  walk 
alone. 


IT  is  not  death  to  have  the  body  called  back  to  the 
earth,  and  dissolved  into  its  kindred  elements,  and  mould- 
ered to  dust,  and,  it  may  be,  turn  to  daisies,  in  the  grave. 
But  it  is  death  to  have  the  soul  paralyzed,  its  inner  life 
quenched,  its  faculties  dissipated;  that  is  death.  What 
is  blindness  ?  Is  it  blindness  merely  not  to  see  with  the 
outer  eye  ?  Was  Milton  blind  when  he  saw  the  angels 
of  God  and  all  the  beautiful  ones  of  the  spiritual  world  in 
all  their  brightness  before  his  soul's  inner  vision  ?  Is  it 
deafness  merely  not  to  hear  the  outer  world,  when  you 
can  hear  God's  voice  of  approval,  cheering  you,  and  the 
words,  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant "  ?  But 
it  is  deafness,  and  blindness,  and  'death  itself,  to  have  all 
our  moral  nature  utterly  dissipated  and  wasted  away. 


IN  this  world  or  any  other,  the  same  place  cannot  be 
the  same  place  to  the  sinner  as  to  the  saint. 


LIVING    WORDS.  255 

WOULD  the  gamester  unlock  the  springs  of  his  heart 
that  he  has  pressed  down  as  with  iron,  —  would  he  suffer 
memory  and  reflection  to  do  their  work,  —  what  pictures 
of  his  domestic  life  might  they  paint  for  him !  The  first 
in  the  series  should  be  one  of  calm  bliss  and  joy.  Not  a 
cloud  in  the  heaven,  save  those  tinged  and  made  beautiful 
by  hope ;  —  the  eyes  of  love  looking  out  upon  him,  —  the 
dependence  of  a  trustful  heart  casting  upon  him  its  all. 
Then  the  scene  would  change.  A  tearful  and  deserted 
wife,  a  sobbing,  pitying  child,  keeping  watch  with  the 
lone  night-lamp,  till  the  breaking  of  the  morning.  Again, 
and  haggard  misery  would  creep  into  the  picture,  adding 
the  keenness  of  deprivation  to  the  sting  of  grief,  —  press- 
ing heavily  upon  the  bowed,  crushed  spirit  of  that  wife, 
—  mingling  the  draught  of  slighted,  abused  affection 
with  the  tears  of  starved  and  shivering  childhood, — 
piercing  her  ear  at  once  with  the  moans  for  bread  and  the 
curses  of  disappointed  brutality.  Once  more,  and  there 
should  be  a  GRAVE  !  —  a  green  and  lowly  grave  —  where 
the  faithful  heart  that  loved  him  to  the  last  should  rest 
from  all  its  pangs,  and  the  child  that  he  had  slighted 
should  sleep  as  cold  and  still  as  the  bosom  that  once 
nourished  it ;  a  grave !  where  even  the  wide  and  distant 
heaven  should  be  kinder  than  he,  —  smiling  in  sunshine 
and  weeping  in  rain  over  those  for  whom  he,  in  his  mad 
career,  never  smiled  or  wept,  —  whom  he  in  his  reckless 
course,  hurried  thus  early  to  their  death. 


256  LIVING    WORDS. 

INTEMPERANCE  is  no  respecter  of  classes.  In  parlors 
and  hovels,  in  rags  and  broadcloth,  its  dupes  stumble  and 
die.  It  strikes  manly  strength  and  beauty  with  untimely 
rottenness;  genius  is  drowned  by  it;  the  brain-links  of 
logic  are  broken,  and  the  tongue  of  eloquence  utters  a 
tuneless  babble.  Indeed  it  has  the  art  to  cheat  men  out 

_  of  their  very  personality,  and  to  change  them  into  mani- 
acs and  fools Not  only  has  it  gained  complete 

mastery  over  your  moral  sense,  drowned  your  truest  con- 
victions, and  perverted  your  best  feelings ;  but  see  what  a 
picture  of  humanity  you  present,  —  snoring  in  the  bar- 
room, reeking  in  the  gutter,  grinning  like  an  idiot, 
whooping  like  a  savage,  tumbled  about  like  a  foot-ball, 
the  lines  of  intelligence  chiseled  from  your  face  or  daubed 
with  blood  and  bruises,  your  lips  black  with  blasphemy, 

"your  brow  fanned  by  licentious  passion,  your  heart  dry, 
your  brain  hot,  your  memory  shattered,  a  bankrupt  in  your 
limbs,  a  caricature  of  a  man  ! 


To  every  one  of  us  God  gives  this  terrible  yet  glorious 
privilege,  of  doing  what  we  like. 


THAT  is  the  sublimest  condition  into  which  a  man  can 
come  when  he  perfectly  surrenders  to  God  his  will,  and 
does  what  he  likes  because  he  likes  to  do  God's  will. 


LIVING    WORDS.  257 

THE  great  crises  of  man's  existence  do  not  consist 
primarily  in  changes  of  place,  or  of  external  fortune,  but 
in  changes  of  state  or  inward  condition. 


WE  must  not  think  too  much  of  death,  —  death's  nar- 
row bridge,  over  which  Christ  walked  in  coronation- 
robes,  —  over  which  martyrs  passed  in  glorious  procession. 
Death  in  itself  is  p,  mere  physical  change,  after  all,  and  we 
must  not  make  too  much  of  it.  Any  experience  that  a 
man  may  have  in  this  world  or  any  other  can  hardly  be 
greater  than  when  over  his  dead  soul  there  moves  a 
divine  influence,  and  in  him  are  quickened  holy  aspira- 
tions; when  he  stirs  in  the  grave-clothes  of  evil  habit, 
and  breaks  the  bands  of  wicked  will ;  when  he  leaps  from 
the  sarcophagus  of  sensual  indulgence,  and  comes  into 
spiritual  light.  When  the  familiar  earth  shines  in  the 
brightness  of  immortal  sanctions,  and  faith  tears  away  the 
veil  of  the  unseen,  and  he  realizes  that  he  is  a  denizen  of 
eternity  and  a  child  of  God,  then  is  there  indeed  a  resur- 
rection from  the  dead. 


To  me  there  is  something  thrilling  and  exalting  in  the 
thought  that  we  are  drifting  forward  into  a  splendid  mys- 
tery, —  into  something  that  no  mortal  eye  has  yet  seen, 
no  intelligence  has  yet  declared. 

22* 


258  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  old  simile  of  the  butterfly  and  the  chrysalis  I 
never  thought  a  very  forcible  one,  so  far  as  it  is  used  as 
an  argument  in  proof  'of  another  world ;  but  take  it  in 
another  view,  and  I  think  it  is  one  of  the  most  astonish- 
ing analogies,  one  of  the  most  astonishing  proofs  of  im- 
mortality you  can  furnish.  The  sages  of  the  ancient 
world  had  about  as  many  natural  arguments  for  immor- 
tality as  we  have.  The  human  intellect  struck  at  an 
early  period  upon  the  great  points  of  analogy.  And 
when  they  took  up  this  beautiful  simile  of  the  butterfly 
they  taught  a  great  truth ;  though,  I  repeat,  they  did  not 
prove  the  existence  of  another  world  by  it,  but  of  another 
state.  Look  at  it ;  the  butterfly  is  in  the  same  world  as 
the  worm  from  which  the  butterfly  is  evolved ;  but,  0, 
how  changed,  because  of  the  new  capacities  unfolded  in 
its  own  being  !  So  the  resurrection  of  man  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  unfolding  of  inner  capacities,  the  develop- 
ment of  his  spiritual  being,  rather  than  a  translation  to 
some  distant  .sphere.  The  wings  may  be  growing  in  his 
soul  all  the  while,  which  shall  spread  when  he  bursts  the 
chrysalis  of  his  mortality ;  and  when  that  chrysalis  bursts 
he  may  find  himself  in  no  strange  place,  but  moving  with 
larger  powers  among  familiar  scenes. 


THE  man  who  went  as  far  as  he  dared  to  go  is  as  bad 
as  the  man  who  dared  to  go  further  and  did  go. 


LIVING    WORDS.  259 

THE  essential  thing  in  the  resurrection  is  not  the 
scenery  or  the  method,  but  the  uplifting  of  the  human 
spirit  from  sensuality  and  sin. 


CLOTHES,  rank,  social  position,  are  rags  and  nonsense 
compared  with  the  essential  quality  and  quantity  of  man's 
being.  It  is  life,  degrees  of  life,  that  makes  the  essential 
difference  between  men.  Is  not  this  the  reward  of  all 
effort  for  truth  and  goodness,  that  we  thus  acquire  new 
life  ?  The  more  acquaintance  man  gets  with  facts  the 
more  he  lives  ;  he  forms  a  vascular  connection  with  them, 
and  they  become  parts  of  him.  He  lives  the  past ;  he  is 
Plato  and  Newton,  Shakspeare  and  Channing ;  his  mind 
sweeps  the  w,ide  orbits  of  Saturn  and  Neptune,  and  the 
splendor  of  the  Pleiades  glitters  in  his  thoughts.  And 
the  more  he  sympathizes  with  excellence  the  more  he 
goes  out  from  self  ;  the  more  he  loves  the  broader  and 
the  deeper  is  his  own  personality ;  until  his  life  fills  the 
compass  of  the  world,  and  he  is  quickened  by  the  very 
heart  of  God. 


IN  politics  men  start  not  from  the  platform  of  ideal  and 
spiritual  realities,  but  from  party.  It  is  the  Buffalo  or 
the  Baltimore  platform,  and  not  that  of  Mount  Sinai 
or  the  Mount  of  Olives. 


260  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  great  fault  of  man's  reasoning  is  not  in  the  pro- 
cess, but  in  the  premises.  We  say  of  a  man  that  he 
cannot  reason  well  because  he  is  wrong  in  his  process. 
That  is  not  the  fault:  his  mistake  consists  in  his  not 
starting  well,  —  in  his  premises  rather  than  his  process. 
The  knave  reasons  as  well  as  the  saint,  but  he  does  not 
start  from  the  same  premises.  The  insane  man  often 
reasons  most  acutely,  most  wonderfully.  If  you  get  into 
the  stream  of  his  logic  he  tryps  you  up.  So  sharp,  so 
subtle  is  he,  and  so  ready  to  meet  your  objections,  that 
you  have  to  go  back  to  the  false  premises  and  conceptions 
in  the  chinks  and  crannies  of  his  brain,  which  weaken  it 
and  make  it  morbid.  Starting  from  these  he  makes  the 
mistake.  The  sane  man  differs  from  the  insane  man  not 
in  the  process,  but  in  the  premises.  And  so  it  is  with 
regard  to  the  reasoning  of  men  generally.  They  start 
from  false  premises,  and,  reasoning  from  them,  at  last 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  anything  they  do  is  right. 
If  they  once  can  make  themselves  believe  that  it  is  right 
to  uphold  a  certain  traffic,  then  it  is  easy  to  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  anything  by  which  they  sustain  it  is  right. 
If  they  believe  they  have  a  right  to  consult  expediency, 
then  it  is  but  another  step  to  believe  in  the  right  to  pick 
a  national  pocket  just  as  much  as  a  private  pocket,  —  to 
steal  an  island  as  much  as  to  commit  a  trespass  upon  pri- 
vate property.  Start  with  wrong  premises,  and  all  man- 
ner of  conclusions  will  follow. 


LIVING    WORDS.  261 

THE  radical  differences  between  men  are  comparatively 
few.  If  we  classify  them  by  temperaments,  manners,  de- 
grees of  culture,  we  may  draw  up  quite  a  catalogue. 
But  if  we  let  them  fall  into  rank,  according  to  essential 
tendencies,  people  wide  apart  in  external  conditions  will 
file  into  the  same  group.  Indeed,  in  the  last  analysis,  it 
is  only  a  truism  to  say  that  everybody  is  full  of  human 
nature.  » 


THE  essential  life  of  heaven  first  breaks  upon  us  when 
we  rise  from  sense  and  sin  and  go  forth  with  transcend- 
ent vision  and  unworldly  aims. 


IN  asserting  the  claims  of  the  State  against  the  pro- 
tests of  the  individual  conscience,  it  is  absurd  to  strike 
away  the  ground  on  which  rests  the  stability  of  the  State 
itself,  —  the  ground  of  private  moral  principle.  It  is  ab- 
surd to  make  the  State  unseat  the  very  power  to  which  it 
appeals.  The  best  men  in  community  are  the  men  who 
feel  that  the  final  ligature  in  our  nature  is  that  which 
binds  us  to  God. 


A  TRUE  man  never  frets  about  his  place  in  the  world, 
but  just  slides  into  it  by  the  gravitation  of  his  nature, 
and  swings  there  as  easily  as  a  star. 


262  LIVING    WORDS. 

TRUE  justice  has  regard  not  merely  to  selfish  ends  and 
to  literal  right,  but  to  the  good  of  others  and  the  great 
law  of  love. 


of  which  he  is  developed,  —  that  which  constitutes  the 
very  sap  and  fibre  of  his  manliness,  —  is  his  moral  sense. 
This  alone,  when  upright  and  pure,  makes  him  a  compact 
stability  in  society  as  well  as  in  his  private  relations. 


LAWS  are  nothing,  institutions  are  nothing,  national 
power  and  greatness  are  nothing,  save  as  they  assist  the 
moral  purpose  of  God  in  the  development  of  humanity. 


THE  gospel  has  but  a  forced  alliance  with  war.  Its 
doctrine  of  human  brotherhood  would  ring  strangely  be- 
tween the  opposed  ranks.  The  bellowing  speech  of  can- 
non and  the  baptism  of  blood  mock  its  liturgies  and 
sacraments.  Its  gentle  beatitudes  would  hardly  serve  as 
mottoes  for  defiant  banners,  nor  its  list  of  graces  as  names 
for  ships-of-the-line. 


IF  anything  is  made  clear  in  the  New  Testament  it  is 
that  the  best  affections  of  this  earth  are  not  changed  when 
they  are  translated  to  heaven. 


LIVING    WORDS.  2G3 

STAND,  in  imagination,  of  a  summer's  morning,  upon  a 
field  of  battle.  Earth  and  sky  melt  together  in  light 
and  harmony ;  the  air  is  rich  with  fragrance,  and  sweet 
with  the  song  of  birds.  But  suddenly  breaks  in  the 
sound  of  fiercer  music,  and  the  measured  tramp  of  thou- 
sands. Eager  squadrons  shake  the  earth  with  thunder, 
and  files  of  bristling  steel  kindle  in  the  sun ;  and,  opposed 
to  each  other,  line  to  line,  face  to  face,  are  now  arrayed 
men  whom  God  has  made  in  the  same  likeness,  and  whose 
nature  he  has  touched  to  the  same  issues.  The  same 
heart  beats  in  all.  In  the  momentary  hush,  like  a  swift 
mist  sweep  before  them  images  of  home ;  voices  of  chil- 
dren prattle  in  their  ears;  memories  of  affection  stir 
among  their  silent  prayers.  They  cherish  the  same  sanc- 
tities, too.  They  have  read  from  the  same  Book.  It  is 
to  them  the  same  charter  of  life  and  salvation ;  they  have 
been  taught  to  observe  its  beautiful  lessons  of  love ;  their 
hearts  have  been  touched  alike  with  the  meek  example 
of  Jesus.  But  a  moment,  and  all  these  affinities  are 
broken,  trampled  under  foot,  swept  away  by  the  shock 
and  the  shouting.  Confusion  rends  the  air ;  the  simmer- 
ing bomb  ploughs  up  the  earth ;  the  iron  hail  cuts  the 
quivering  flesh  ;  the  steel  bites  to  the  bone ;  the  cannon- 
shot  crashes  through  serried  ranks ;  and  under  a  cloud  of 
smoke  that  hides  both  earth  and  heaven  the  desperate 
struggle  goes  on.  The  day  wanes,  and  the  strife  ceases. 
On  the  one  side  there  is  a  victory,  on  the  other  a  de- 


264  LIVING    WORDS. 

feat.  The  triumphant  city  is  lighted  with  jubilee,  the 
streets  roll  out  their  tides  of  acclamation,  and  the  organ 
heaves  from  its  groaning  breast  the  peal  of  thanksgiving. 
But  under  that  tumultuous  joy  there  are  bleeding  bosoms 
and  inconsolable  tears ;  and,  whether  in  triumphant  or  de- 
feated lands,  a  shudder  of  orphanage  and  widowhood  —  a 
chill  of  woe  and  death  —  runs  far  and  wide  through  the 
world.  The  meek  moon  breaks  the  dissipating  veil  of 
the  conflict,  and  rolls  its  calm  splendor  above  the  dead. 
And  see  now  how  much  woe  man  has  mingled  with  the 
inevitable  evils  of  the  universe !  See  now  the  fierceness 
of  his  passion,  the  folly  of  his  wickedness,  witnessed  by 
the  torn  standards,  the  broken  wheels,  the  pools  of  clotted 
blood,  the  charred  earth,  the  festering  heaps  of  slain. 
Nature  did  not  make  these  horrors,  and  when  those 
fattening  bones  shall  have  mouldered  in  the  soil  she  will 
spread  out  luxuriant  harvests  to  hide  those  horrors  for- 
ever. 


THE  essence  of  the  gospel  —  its  great  peculiarity  —  is 
not  in  any  statement  of  God's  nature,  or  of  man's  nature, 
—of  the  Trinity,  of  the  unity,  of  human  perfectibility,  of 
total  depravity.  The  essence  of  the  gospel  is  in  its  spirit 
of  restoring,  of  long-suffering,  of  inexhaustible  love,  claim- 
ing its  objects,  waiting  for  them,  and  welcoming  them  at 
the  last. 


LIVING    WORDS.  265 

FANCY  yourselves  standing  on  the  banks  of  the  Dela- 
ware more  than  a  century  and  a  half  ago.  The  "winds 
have  stripped  the  leaves  from  the  primeval  forest,  save 
where  the  pines  lift  their  dark  drapery  to  the  sky.  The 
river  travels  silently  on  its  way.  All  around  lies' the 
solitude  of  nature,  unbroken  by  the  wheels  of  traffic  or 
the  triumphs  of  civilization.  Apart  from  the  roar  and 
the  conflict  of  nations,  —  apart  from  the  hurrying  tides  of 
interest  and  passion,  —  this  lone  spot  in  the  western  wil- 
derness, beside  the  calm  river,'  is  a  spot  for  peace  and  love, 
—  a  spot  where  the  children  of  humanity  may  come,  bury 
their  war  weapons,  and  embrace.  Lo  !  it  is  that  spot. 
An  instance  of  brotherly  love  is  displayed  here,  such  as 
the  world  had  not  seen  since  the  days  of  the  Redeemer. 
From  the  recesses  of  the  forest  there  glides  a  file  of  red 
and  naked  men,  wild  in  their  strength,  and  uncurbed  in 
all  the  native  impulses  of  humanity.  As  they  cluster 
beneath  the  arching  elm,  or  brood  in  dusky  lines  along 
the  wooded  back-ground,  their  eyes  glisten  with  the  fires 
of  their  fierce  nature,  and  here  and  there  a  hand  grasps 
more  closely  its  weapon;  yet  in  the  grave  silence  and 
studied  repose  the  old  men  bend  forward  their  scarred 
faces,  and  the  young  incline  their  ears  to  hear.  He  who 
stands  up  to  speak  to  them  is  a  white  man,  unarmed,  and 
almost  companionless,  yet  in  his  mein  there  is  neither 
hesitation  nor  fear,  and  his  face,  where  mildness  sweetly 

23 


266  LIVING    WORDS. 

blends  with  dignity,  banishes  the  suspicion  of  deceit. 
Consider  him  well ;  for  in  the  true  record  of  his  life  his 
name  is  enrolled  higher  than  those  of  heroes.  Bred  up 
in  all  the  amenities  of  life,  he  has  come  to  try  a  "holy 
experiment"  in  the  depths  of  the  wilderness.  Trained  in 
various  learning,  he  feels  that  love  is  the  best  knowledge 
and  the  best  language.  Unawed  in  sculptured  minsters, 
unfettered  by  ordinances,  he  calls  the  great  earth  a 
temple,  and  finds  in  all  the  humanities  forms  of  worship. 
Unbending  before  kings,  he  reverences  the  rudest  savage 
as  a  man.  Rejecting  human  creeds,  his  soul  is  full  of 
the  gospel.  Guided  by  the  "inner  light,"  the  law  of 
conscience  and  of  truth,  the  Indian's  rights  are  sacred  as 
the  white  man's,  and  he  asks  no  force  to  aid  him  but  the 
force  of  love.  And  as  he  utters  those  simple  words  of 
peace  and  justice,  those  savage  bosoms  grow  warm  with 
the  Christian  law,  those  glittering  eyes  melt  with  charity, 
around  those  dusky  circles  throbs  the  pulse  of  the  one 
humanity,  and  the  panther  of  the  forest  becomes  as  the 
lamb.  The  child  of  the  red  man  clasps  the  hand  of  the 
white  stranger,  the  belt  of  wampum  is  made  a  beautiful 
symbol,  and  the  words  of  solemn  promise  go  forth,  —  the 
winds  lift  them  higher  than  any  shout  of  victory,  the 
woods  repeat  them  far  inland,  and  the  Delaware  bears 
them  rolling  by, —  "We  will  live  with  William  Penn 
and  his  children  as  long  as  the  sun  and  the  moon  shall 


LIVING    WORDS.  267 

endure."  It  was  an  honest  compact.  It  was  a  bloodless 
conquest.  It  was  the  triumph  of  peace  and  right.  The 
historian  records  it  with  a  glow.  The  philanthropist 
quotes  it,  and  takes  courage.  The  Christian  remembers 
it,  and  clings  with  new  faith  to  the  religion  that  accom- 
plished it. 


"  FIRST  pure,  and  then  peaceable."  That  is  the  great 
order  of  things ;  for  there  is  no  peace  without  purity ; 
and  a  man  cannot  effectually  make  peace  in  the  world 
unless  he  is  at  peace  in  himself;  and  he  cannot  be  at 
peace  in  himself  unless  he  is  pure  and  right  within. 


CAN  you  conceive  of  anything  that  so  represents  the 
glory,  and  truth,  and  marvelousness  of  God's  nature  as  the 
idea  of  peace  ?  When  you  come  back  to  your  best  evi- 
dences, what  would  constitute  the  beatitudes  of  the  divine 
nature  but  peace  and  harmony  at  the  centre  of  all  things, 
—  undisturbed  fulness  of  life? 


As  in  the  family  circle  the  return  of  the  wanderer  — 
his  penitent  and  willing  return  —  is  received  with  a  burst 
of  gladness,  so  the  return  of  the  sinful  to  truth,  to  holi- 
ness, to  God,  fills  all  heaven  with  bliss,  and  thrills  with 
joy  angelic  hearts. 


268  LIVING     WORDS. 

As  when  one  has  been  shut  in  some  gloomy  room, 
some  tainted,  sick  chamber,  some  dark,  narrow  enclosure, 
and  gets  out  into  one  of  these  glorious  spring  days  of  open 
"nature,  and  the  broad  arch  of  heaven  spreads  over  him  like 
a  benediction,  and  the  wind  breathes  upon  him  like  a  new 
life,  and  all  the  harmonies  of  nature  multiply  and  gather 
around  him,  so  one  goes  out  from  the  narrowness  of 
human  conceit,  and  the  perplexities  of  human  discussion, 
and  little  mean  bigotries  of  human  conclusions,  into  the 
broad,  free  atmosphere  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  always  has 
that  effect  upon  me.  It  comes  upon  me  like  a  breath  of 
nature,  to  turn  away  from  the  distracting  discussion  of 
men,  the  little  pin-point  differences,  the  mean,  dark, 
gloomy  bigotries  that  creep  over  religious  discussion,  and 
to  come  to  Jesus  Christ,  who  uttered  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  who  gave  me  the  beautiful  parable  of  the  sower 
going  forth  to  sow,  who  teaches  me  by  the  suggestion  of 
the  vineyard,  who  points  to  the  wild  bird  flying  through 
the  air,  and  the  lily  clothed  in  raiment  more  splendid 
than  that  of  Solomon. 


THE  trumpet  of  God  is  blown  against  evil,  and  it  is 
only  a  question  of  time.  The  black  night-hawks  go 
swooping  under  the  Southern  cross  to  strike  their  beaks 
into  bleeding  Africa,  but  they  will  fail  as  surely  as  night 
is  smitten  by  God's  morning. 


LIVING    WORDS.  269 

NEVER  did  any  man,  who  comes  to  it  rightly,  go  away 
from  the  New  Testament  with  anything  like  a  gloomy 
thought.  With  shame,  penitence,  and  a  solemn  sense  of 
life  —  with  a  quickening  of  that  which  is  deepest  and 
brightest  in  us  —  we  go  away ;  but  never  with  anything 
like  gloom  from  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ. 


JESUS  CHRIST  is  the  reflection  of  the  divine  love. 
There  is  nothing  tender  in  him  who  blessed  little  chil- 
dren, —  there  is  nothing  lovely  in  him  who  walked  so 
kindly  among  the  sorrows  and  wrongs  of  humanity,  — 
there  is  nothing  that  attracts  us  to  the  heart  of  him  who 
sat  at  the  marriage-feast  in  Cana,  who  mingled  with  the 
poor  and  suffering,  who  cleansed  the  leper  and  raised  the 
dead,  —  there  is  nothing  in  all  that  love  that  draws  us 
to  him  that  is  not  in  the  Father's  nature.  If  we  only 
could  see  God's  love,  and  realize  it  as  expressed  in  Jesus 
Christ,  we  could  not  help  longing  for  it,  and  praying  that 
such,  according  to  the  finite  capacity  of  our  nature,  might 
be  the  essence  of  our  spiritual  being. 


OUR  post  is  not  the  Mount  of  Vision,  but  the  Field  of 
Labor ;  and  we  can  find  no  rest  in  Eden  until  we  have 
passed  through  Gethsemane. 

23* 


270  LIVING    WORDS. 

IN  a  mother's  heart  there  is  a  love  that  cannot  be 
altered  and  exhausted,  and  that  will  claim  that  abandoned 
sinner  when  he  comes  back.  So  in  the  Infinite  bosom, 
and  in  the  bosoms  of  all  heavenly  beings,  there  exists  the 
same  love.  The  spirit  that  sent  Jesus  Christ  on  earth  ia 
that  spirit.  The  purpose  of  Christ's  mission  is  to  de- 
clare that  spirit.  That  is  the  peculiarity  of  the  gospel 
over  and  above  everything  else.  Precisely  where  man's 
faith  falls  and  man's  hope  falters  is  it  that  the  gospel 
becomes  clear  andv  strong.  It  is  not  the  announcement 
of  the  doctrine  of  evil  to  the  sinner,  and  good  to  the 
saint.  That  doctrine  might  stand  upon  any  basis,  even 
the  basis  of  worldly  morality.  But  it  is  the  announce- 
ment of  the  doctrine  of  a  good  that  will  forgive  the  sinner, 

—  that  will  watch  over  its  objects,  wait  upon  them,  and 
welcome  them  at  last.     That  is  the  sublime  originality, 

—  that  is  the  practical  power  of  the  gospel.     And  this 
sympathy  is  a  sympathy  that  prevails  among  the  purest 
and  best  beings  of  the  universe ;  that  is  the  point.     It  is 
not  in  proportion  as  a  man  is  a  sinner  that  he  sympathizes 
with -the  sinner,  but  in  proportion  as  a  being  is  pure  and 
unsullied  is  there  a  sympathy,  not  for  the  sin,  but  for  the 
sinner,  which  is  deep  and  lasting. 


LIFE  itself  suggests  a  higher  good  than  life  itself  can 
yield. 


LIVING    WORDS.  271 

I  SEE  nowhere  in  nature  the  personal  God.  I  see  a 
God  of  law,  a  God  of  order,  a  God  whose  footsteps  are 
marked  in  all  the  bright  stars  which  sprinkle  the  heavens, 
whose  work  is  seen  in  the  characters  of  the  long-finished 
ages  beneath  my  feet,  all  moving  orderly,  calm,  splendid, 
cold,  austere.  I  recognize  God  in  every  grass-blade  that 
springs  up  to-day,  in  every  star  that  travels  in  glory ;  but 
it  is  the  God  of  order,  the  God  of  law ;  a  God  who  is  as 
near  to  the  butterfly  that  flits  with  embroidered  wings  as 
to  you  and  me ;  a  God  who  cares  as  much  for  the  gilded 
wheels  of  Mars  or  Uranus  as  for  the  tribes  of  suffering, 
weak,  wounded  humanity.  But  when  I  come  to  Jesus 
Christ,  I  find  a  father ;  I  find  not  only  a  God  of  law,  but 
a  God  of  love.  I  find  not  only  an  abstract,  general  God, 
but  a  personal  God.  I  find  not  only  a  God  who  cares  in 
general  beneficence  for  the  forms  of  outward  nature,  but 
who  has  a  peculiar  care  for  humanity,  who  looks  to  it  as 
to  his  own  image,  and  sees  something  in  it  to  become 
more  like  him,  to  rise  nearer  and  nearer  to  him,  and  wear 
more  gloriously  his  likeness.  I  behold  a  Father  who  goes 
forth  continually,  striving  to  bring  humanity  to  himself; 
seeking  for  the  poor,  lost  sheep;  searching  for  the  lost 
piece  of  silver ;  yearning  over  each  man,  —  the  poorest, 
the  lowest,  the  vilest.  0  !  God's  love,  God's  personal 
contact,  God's  fatherhood,  I  find  in  Jesus  Christ,  and 
there  alone  !  You  know  that  the  men  who  have  uttered 
the  subliinest  strains  of  philosophy,  who  have  given  us 


272  LIVING    WORDS. 

the  wisest  codes  of  morals,  have  never  stood  in  this  posi- 
tion. It  is  Christ  alone  who  has  given  us  the  truth  of 
humanity  and  the  truth  of  God,  and  who  has  given  us  an 
illustration  of  it. 


As  it  is  in  nature  so  it  is  in  the  Bible,  —  the  great 
truths  are  on  the  surface.  They  are  not  for  scholars 
only.  It  would  be  preposterous,  would  it  not,  to  suppose 
that  God  gave  a  revelation  to  man  bearing  upon  his  high- 
est duty  and  destiny,  and  then  made  it  so  that  only  schol- 
ars and  learned  men  could  comprehend  it,  —  something 
we  must  shovel  after  with  our  dictionaries  and  lexicons,  — 
delving  into  ecclesiastical  history  to  get  at  the  great  sav- 
ing truths  of  the  gospel  ? 

I  WOULD  not  dare  to  preach  if  I  did  not  have  confidence 
in  the  Love  that  is  watching  over  us,  —  if  I  thought  I 
was  the  minister  of  some  awful  power  or  mystery.  If 
I  thought  that  I  must  carry  to  dying  beds  and  to  scenes 
of  mortal  need  only  the  great  dark  shadow  of  mystery,  I 
could  not  preach.  It  is  because  I  think  I  have  to  speak 
of  infinite  love,  —  of  love  greater  than  we  can  fathom, 
broader  than  we  can  compass,  more  full  than  we  can  ex- 
press ;  because  I  feel  that  there  is  a  power  back  of  the 
humble  words  which  I  speak  to  flow  into  the  hearts  of 
men  and  lift  them  up. 


LIVING    WORDS.  273 

THE  best  commentary  upon  the  New  Testament  is  the 
New  Testament  itself.  The  best  way  to  understand  it  is 
to  go  right  with  your  naked  human  heart  and  soul  to  it. 
Christ  speaks  the  people's  language.  He  speaks  not  only 
to  the  people  of  Judea  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  but 
to  the  people  of  America  now.  And  to  every  needy  heart 
his  language  is  plain  and  simple.  While  the  Pharisees 
saw  something  to  cavil  at,  and  the  Scribes  to  abuse,  the 
common  people  heard  him  gladly,  and  the  common  heart 
felt  him  and  owned  him ;  and  so  spontaneous  did  it  become 
at  last  —  so  did  their  sense  of  the  duty  of  recognition 
swell  —  that  at  last  it  burst  through  all  bounds,  and  they 
scattered  their  palms,  and  strewed  their  garments,  and 
thundered  their  hosannas,  in  the  acknowledgment  of 
Christ's  authority  and  his  truth. 


WHEN  you  can  jam  a  man  up  against  a  great  fact  of 
life,  and  ask  him,  How  now?  —  what  does  this  teach 
you  ?  —  what  does  that  say,  0  man !  to  the  deep  heart 
within  you?  —  what  does  that  speak  to  the  aspiring, 
thirsty  soul  ?  —  When  you  can  do  that,  there  is  power  in 
preaching ;  and  if  it  is  only  the  leaf  of  the  lily  or  the 
wing  of  the  wild  bird,  it  has  infinite  power  the  moment  it 
presses  home  the  great  reality  of  the  truth  which  it  con- 
tains. 


274  LIVING     WORDS. 

As  Christ  passes  before  us  —  as  he  rides  through  the 
ages  —  as  his  glory  -with  every  advancing  year  culminates 
in  new  operations  of  his  spirit,  and  new  demonstrations  of 
his  truth  —  he  compels  from  us  such  an  acknowledgment 
as  that  which  poured  from  the  lips  and  waved  from  the 
palm-branches  of  the  people  on  the  road  to  Jerusalem. 


As  he  rides  through  the  ages,  a  vaster  throng  —  far 
more  vast  than  that  which  gathered  around  him  upon  the 
slope  of  the  Mount  of  Olives  —  gathers  about  him,  —  a 
great  multitude  that  no  man  can  number :  the  morally 
blind,  whose  eyes  have  been  opened ;  the  spiritually  deaf, 
•who  have  been  made  to  hear ;  the  worse  than  physically 
dead,  who  have  come  into  newness  of  life ;  tearful  mourn- 
ers,  who  have  felt  the  greatness  of  his  powers  and  the 
peace  he  has  conferred ;  poor,  crushed  hearts,  who  have 
known  the  balm  of  his  consolation;  all  who  have  been 
touched  and  have  been  blessed  by  Jesus  Christ,  swell  the 
long  retinue,  and  give  homage  and  honor  to  his  name. 
Wherever  the  church-bell  rings  out  to-day  —  wherever  it 
touches  the  hearts  of  men  with  any  suggestion  or  any 
meaning  —  there  is  truly  a  Palm  Sunday,  not  of  outward 
offering,  but  of  inward  homage,  just  as  men  can  appreci- 
ate the  real  greatness  of  .Christ,  and  know  what  he  has 
clone  for  them,  and  what  he  has  done  for  the  World. 


WORDS.  275 


WE  do  not  need  simply  to  think  and  feel  about  Christ 
upon  the  Mount  of  Olives,  when  the  world  lies  beneath 
us,  and  the  great  Jerusalem  of  traffic,  strife,  and  tempta- 
tion, yonder.  We  want  to  honor  Christ  by  our  action 
down  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  —  right  down  in  the 
mire,  toil,  dust,  and  heat  of  daily  traffic  ;  in  the  midst  of 
the  selfish  worldliness  of  life.  We  want  something  of 
that  kind  ;  not  merely  a  swell  over  a  congregation  of  the 
thought  of  his  sorrows,  suiferings,  and  agonies,  that  passes 
away  like  a  gust  of  wind.  We  want  to  honor  him,  not 
as  he  rides  in  pomp,  or  as  he  is  presented  before  us  in  a 
point  of  rhetorical  attraction,  but  as  he  walks  down  in  the 
Jerusalem  of  daily  life. 


THE  Christ  of  our  youth,  —  a  personage  standing  mild 
and  beautiful  upon  the  gospel-page,  —  a  being  to  admire 
and  love ;  how  he  develops  to  our  later  thought !  —  how 
solemnly  tender,  how  greatly  real  he  becomes  to  us,  when 
we  cling  to  him  in  the  agony  of  our  sorrow,  and  he  goes 
down  to  walk  with  us  on  the  waters  of  the  sea  of  death  ! 


DOWN  below  all  the  crust  of  human  conceptions,  of 
human  ideas,  Christ  sank  an  artesian  well  into  a  source 
of  happiness  so  pure  and  blessed  that  even  yet  the  world 
does  not  believe  in  it. 


27G  LIVING    WORDS. 

No  such  words  as  those  of  Christ  have  come  from  any 
other  source  in  this  world.  No  such  words  from  any  other 
creature  have  been  wafted  upon  the  stream  of  ages.  There 
are  no  passages  which  mean  so  much,  —  which  open  into 
such  unfathomable  depths.  There  are  none  whiclj,  so  ex- 
pand in  their  nature,  —  which  so  meet  the  most  vital 
wants  of  man.  There  are  none  which  shed  such  light 
upon  the  great  problems  of  existence.  There  are  none 
which  are  at  once  so  divine  and  so  human,  —  presenting 
the  exact  balance  of  duty,  and  guiding  the  doubtful  feet. 
There  are  none  which,  so  marked  with  the  file  of  the  ages, 
keep  ahead  of  all  human  achievements  and  ideals.  There 
are  none  which  are  so  full  for  the  thoughtful  man,  and 
yet  so  fitted  to  the  little  and  the  ignorant.  There  are 
none  which  so  strike  upon  the  deep  malady  of  sin.  There 
are  none  which  so  enter  into,  and  lift  up,  and  give  rest  to 
the  sad,  and  heavy,  and  weary  heart. 


THE  work  of  modern  chivalry  is  the  work  of  humanity. 
Not  a  work  such  as  called  the  old  chivalry  to  battle  for 
the  Holy  Sepulchre,  but  a  work  for  the  help  and  uplift- 
ing of  those  for  whom  He  who  triumphed  over  the  sepul- 
chre died  ;  not  taking  the  shape  of  that  sentiment  which 
"groined  cathedral  isles,"  but  a  work  for  that  which  is 
more  truly  God's  temple,  and  which  his  spirit  fills. 


LIVING    WORDS.  277 

THERE  is  no  condition  in  life  of  which  we  can  say  ex- 
clusively "It  is  good  for  us  to  be  here."  Our  course  is 
appointed  through  vicissitude,  our  discipline  is  in  alterna- 
tions ;  and  we  can  build  no  abiding  tabernacles  along  the 
way. 


THE  multitude  had  been  so  long  used  to  the  dry, 
husky,  technical  teachings  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees 
that  when  they  heard  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  they 
drew  a  long  breath,  and  said,  "Never  man  spake  like 
this  man;"  and  no  one  ever  did.  Why?  Because  he 
saw  radical  truth  everywhere.  He  took  a  little  lily, 
growing  in  the  summer  light,  and  what  a  missal  of  divine 
glory  it  became  !  —  what  a  lesson  of  God's  goodness  !  He 
saw  the  bird  steering  its  way  through  the  air,  and  it  be- 
came at  once  an  illustration  of  Divine  Providence.  He 
took  nothing  but  a  grain  of  mustard-seed,  and  the  whole 
kingdom  of  God  was  involved  in  it.  Wherever  he  turned 
his  eye  he  found  central  and  radical  truth,  and  struck  out 
of  it  something  right  before  the  people  that  they  could 
take  hold  of.  Now,  my  friends,  this  is  the  power  of  all 
effective  preaching.  It  comes  home  to  the  heart  from 
realities. 


THERE  is  an  entire  magazine  of  working  forces  in  that 
one  great  law,  —  "  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 
24 


278  LIVING     WORDS. 

I  HAVE  no  fear  of  the  power  or  of  the  influence  of  the 
pulpit  so  long  as  it  applies  God's  truth  boldly  and  freely  ; 
so  long  as  the  old  prophet  utterances  of  past  ages  are 
borne  from  it  or  breathed  through  it ;  so  long  as  the  true 
apostolic  descent  which  comes  from  the  soul's  serving  God 
and  being  baptized  in  the  spirit  of  Christ  is  represented 
in  it.  I  have  no  fear  of  the  power,  or  efficacy,  or  stand- 
ing of  the  pulpit.  I  have  no  fear  of  the  true  respect  that 
will  come  to  the  preacher  so  long  as  the  people  are  con- 
vinced that  he  is  loyal  to  his  own  convictions.  There  are 
tens  of  thousands  of  people  now,  who  rather  dislike  that 
the  preacher  should  teach  his  own  convictions,  who  would 
dislike  him  ten  times  more  if  he  did  not  do  it.  If  they 
thought  he  was  truckling  and  squeezing  down  upon  the 
pressure  of  public  opinion,  although  they  might  approve 
his  actions,  and  call  him  a  judicious  man,  they  would  be 
disgusted  with  him.  There  is  no  power  left  to  the 
preacher  the  moment  you  think  he  is  not  uttering  his  real 
convictions.  When  you  think  he  is  trimming  his  sails, 
has  his  eye  upon  the  public,  and  cares  more  how  the 
people  receive  his  doctrine  than  what  he  shall  say,  there 
is  no  more  respect  for  him.  Those  preachers,  although 
they  may  be  called  conservative,  wise,  and  prudent,  never 
will  move  the  public  heart  or  do  God's  work. 


MODEST  expression  is  a  beautiful  setting  to  the  diamond 
of  talent  and  genius. 


LIVING    WORDS.  279 

ON  the  wall  of  the  Vatican,  untarnished  by  the  pas- 
sage of  three  hundred  years,  hangs  the  master-piece  of 
Raphael,  -—  his  picture  of  the  Transfiguration.  In  the 
centre,  with  the  glistening  raiment  and  the  altered  coun- 
tenance, stands  the  Redeemer.  On  the  right  hand  and 
on  the  left  are  his  glorified  visitants ;  while,  underneath 
the  bright  cloud,  lie  the  forms  of  Peter,  and  James,  and 
John,  gazing  at  the  transfigured  Jesus,  shading  their 
faces  as  they  look.  Something  of  the  rapture  and  the 
awe  that  attracted  the  apostles  to  that  shining  spot  seems 
to  have  seized  the  soul  of  the  great  artist,  and  filled  him 
with  his  greatest  inspiration.  But  he  saw  what  the 
apostles  at  that  moment  did  not  see,  and  in  another  por- 
tion of  his  picture  has  represented  the  scene  at  the  foot 
of  the  hill,  —  the  group  that  awaited  the  descent  of  Jesus. 
The  poor  possessed  boy,  writhing,  and  foaming,  and 
gnashing  his  teeth,  —  his  eyes,  as  some  say,  in  their  wild, 
rolling  agony,  already  catching  a  glimpse  of  the  glorified 
Christ  above ;  the  baffled  disciples,  the  cavilling  scribes, 
the  impotent  physicians,  the  grief-worn  father,  seeking  in 
vain  for  help.  Suppose  Jesus  had  stayed  upon  the 
mount,  what  would  have  become  of  that  group  of  want, 
and  helplessness,  and  agony?  Suppose  Christ  had  re- 
mained in  the  brightness  of  that  vision  forever,  —  himself 
only  a  vision  of  glory,  and  not  an  example  of  toil,  and 
sorrow,  and  suffering,  and  death,  —  alas !  for  the  great 
world  at  large,  waiting  at  the  foot  of  the  hill ;  —  the 


" 


280  LIVING    WORDS. 

groups  of  humanity  in  all  ages ;  —  the  sin-possessed  suf- 
ferers ;  the  cavilling  sceptics ;  the  philosophers,  with 
their  books  and  instruments ;  the  bereaved  and  frantic 
mourners  in  their  need ! 

So,  my  hearers,  wrapped  in  the  higher  moods  of  the 
soul,  and  wishing  to  abide  among  upper  glories,  we  may 
not  see  the  work  that  waits  for  us  along  our  daily  path ; 
without  doing  which  all  our  visions  are  vain.  We  must 
have  the  visions.  We  need  them  in  our  estimate  of  the" 
world  around  us,  —  of  the  aspects  and^destinies  of  human- 
ity. There  are  times  when  justice  is  balked,  and  truth 
covered  up,  and  freedom  trampled  down ;  —  when  we 
may  well  be  tempted  to  ask,  "  What  is  the  use  of  trying 
to  work  ?  "  —  when  we  may  well  inquire  whether  what 
we  are  doing  is  work  at  all.  And  in  such  a  case,  or  in 
any  other,  one  is  lifted  up,  and  inspired,  and  enabled  to 
do  and  to  endure  all  things,  when  in  steady  vision  he  be- 
holds the  ever-living  God,  —  when  all  around  the  injus- 
tice, and  conflict,  and  suffering  of  the  world,  he  detects 
the  Divine  Presence,  like  a  bright  cloud  overshadowing. 
0  !  then  doubt  melts  away,  and  wrong  dwindles,  and  the 
jubilee  of  victorious  falsehood  is  but  a  peal  of  drunken 
laughter,  and  the  spittings  of  guilt  and  contempt  no  more 
than  flakes  of  foam  flung  against  a  hero's  breast-plate. 
Then  one  sees,  as  it  were,  with  the  vision  of  God,  who 
looked  down  upon  the  old  cycles,  when  a  sweltering  waste 


LIVING    WORDS.  281 

covered  the  face  of  the  globe,  and  huge,  reptile  natures 
held  it  in  dominion;  —  who  beholds  the  pulpy  worm, 
down  in  the  sea,  building  the  pillars  of  continents  ;  —  so 
one  sees  the  principalities  of  evil  sliding  from  their 
thrones,  and  the  deposits  of  humble  faithfulness  rising 
from  the  deep  of  ages.  Our  sympathy,  our  benevolent 
effort  in  the  work  of  God  and  humanity,  how  much  do 
they  need  not  only  the  vision  of  intellectual  foresight,  but 
of  the  faith  which,  on  bended  knees,  sees  further  than  the 
telescope ! 


.WE  should  not  quit  the  world  to  build  tabernacles  in 
the  Mount  of  Transfiguration,  but  come  from  out  the 
celestial  brightness,  to  shed  light  into  the  world,  —  to 
make  the  whole  earth  a  cathedral ;  to  overarch  it  with 
Christian  ideals,  to  transfigure  its  gross  and  guilty  fea- 
tures, and  fill  it  with  redeeming  truth  and  love 

Nay,  even  for  the  Redeemer,  that  was  not  to  be  an  abid- 
ing vision ;  and  he  illustrates  the  purport  of  life  as  he 
descends  from  his  transfiguration  to  toil,  and  goes  forward 
to  exchange  that  robe  of  heavenly  brightness  for  the 
crown  of  thorns.  What  if  Jesus  had  remained  there, 
upon  that  Mount  of  Vision,  and  himself  stood  before  us 
as  only  a  transfigured  form  of  glory  ?  Where,  then, 
would  be  the  peculiarity  of  his  work,  and  its  effect  upon 
the  world  ? 

24* 


282  LIVING    WORDS. 

PETER  and  his  fellow-disciples  were  called  to  follow 
Christ  not  that  they  might  see  visions,  but  were  permitted 
to  see  visions  that  they  might  follow  Christ.  It  was  well 
that  they  should  see  their  Master  glorified,  that  they 
might  be  strengthened  to  see  him  crucified.  It  was  well 
that  Moses  and  Elias  stood  at  the  font  when  they  were 
about  to  be  baptized  into  their  apostleship  of  suffering, 
and  labor,  and  helping  finish  the  work  which  these  glori- 
ous elders  helped  begin.  But  that  great  work  still  lay 
before  them,  and  to  rest  here  would  be  to  stop  upon  the 
threshold ;  —  to  have  kept  the  vision  would  have  thwarted 
the  purpose.  Upon  a  far  higher  summit,  and  at  a  far 
distant  time  —  with  fields  of  toil  and  tracts  of  blood  be- 
tween —  would  that  which  was  meant  as  an  inspiration 
for  their  souls  become  fixed  for  their  sight,  and  taber- 
nacles that  should  never  perish  enclose  a  glory  that  should 
never  pass  away. 


No  father's  love,  no  mother's  affection  for  a  child,  is 
greater  than  God's  love  for  it.  And  if  in  a  moment  of 
darkness — of  a  succession  of  sad  crushing  calamities — we 
are  disposed  to  doubt  God's  love,  —  if  we  are  disposed  to 
murmur  at  his  dispensations, — interpret  him  by  yourself, 
0  father  !  0  mother  !  — interpret  his  love  by  your  love ; 
and  remember  that  you,  the  stream,  cannot  care  more  for 
that  child  than  he,  the  fountain  and  ocean  of  all  love. 


LIVING    WORDS.  283 

IN  order  to  see  our  business  in  its  highest  relations  we 
must  get  above  its  level.  If  we  would  make  it  subserv- 
ient to  religious  ends  and  to  tke  moral  law  we  must 

descend  into  it  with  superior  influences The  man 

who  makes  his  business  the  noble  symbol  of  a  true  life  at 
times  goes  apart  from  it.  The  divine  refreshment  which 
he  carries  with  him  into  the  heat  and  burden  of  the  day, 
and  with  which  he  keeps  his  aim  elevated  and  his  vision 
clear,  he  imbibes  not  in  the  market  or  the  street,  but 
from  mountain-heights  of  thought  and  well-spring,  of 
prayer.  Let  him  show  his  religion  in  business,  but  let 
him  use  the  means  that  he  may  find  a  religion  to  show. 


THAT  religion  has  done  very  little  work  that  has 
merely  made  a  man  feel  easier,  happier,  and  better  con- 
tented in  life.  It  ought  to  arous'e  a  man  up.  You  know 
the  anecdote  of  Louis  and  Massilon.  After  Massilon 
had  preached  rather  an  agitating  sermon,  I  suppose,  Louis 
sent  for  him.  "Massilon,"  said  he,  "you  have  offended 
me."  —  "That  is  what  I  wished  to  do,  sire,"  said  the 
preacher.  And  I  would  not  give  a  cent  for  a  minister 
who  did  not  offend  two-thirds  of  his  congregation,  at  times, 
—  arouse  them  up,  —  smash  against  the  conscience  of  the 
bigot,  and  balk  party  prejudices,  and  touch  the  secret  sin, 
which,  if  they  do  not  confess,  they  still  feel. 


284  LIVING    WORDS. 

IF  we  might  adapt  God's  nature  at  all  to  our  poor 
human  conceptions,  we  should  feel  that  even  waves  of 
gladness  must  go  over  the  infinite  sea  of  his  nature  at  the 
exercise  of  mercy,  and  that  even  he,  in  his  unapproach- 
able greatness  and  infinity,  feels  something  of  that  joy 
which  runs  through  all  heaven  at  the  exercise  and  ex- 
hibition of  mercy. 


PERHAPS  the  most  restless  being  in  the  world  is  the 
man  who  need  to  do  nothing  but  keep  still.  The  old 
soldier  fights  all  his  battles  over  again,  and  the  retired 
merchant  spreads  the  sails  of  his  thought  upon  new  ven- 
tures, or  comes  uneasily  down  to  snuff  the  air  of  traffic, 
and  feel  the  jar  of  wheels.  I  suppose  there  is  nobody 
whose  condition  is  so  deplorable,  so  ghastly,  as  his  whose 
lot  many  may  be  disposed  to  envy,  —  a  man  at  the  top 
of  this  world's  ease,  —  crammed  to  repletion  with  what  is 
called  "  enjoyment ;  "  ministered  to  by  every  luxury,  — 
the  entire  surface  of  his  life  so  smooth  with  completeness 
that  there  is  not  a  jut  to  hang  a  hope  on,  —  so  obsequi- 
ously gratified  in  every  specific  want  that  he  feels  miser- 
able from  the  very  lack  of  wanting. 


I  DO  not  know  of  any  other  church  standard  than  this : 
the  life  of  Christ  —  the  spirit  of  Christ. 


LIVING    WORDS.  285 

"WHO  can  adequately  describe  the  triumphs  of  Labor  ? 
It  has  extorted  the  secrets  of  the  universe,  and  trained 
its  powers  into  a  myriad  forms  of  use  and  beauty. 
From  the  bosom  of  the  old  creation  it  has  developed 
anew  the  creation  of  industry  and  of  art.  It  has  been  its 
task  and  its  glory  to  overcome  obstacles.  Mountains 
have  been  levelled  and  vallies  exalted  before  it.  It  has 
broken  the  rocky  soil  into  fertile  glebes,  it  has  crowned 
the  hill-tops  with  fruit  and  verdure,  and  bound  around 
the  very  feet  of  ocean  ridges  of  golden  corn.  Up  from 
sunless  and  hoary  deeps,  up  from  the  shapeless  quarry, 
it  drags  its  spotless  marbles,  and  rears  its  palaces  of  pomp. 
It  tears  the  stubborn  metals  from  the  bowels  of  the  globe, 
and  makes  them  ductile  to  its  will.  It  marches  steadily 
on,  over  the  swelling  flood  and  through  the  mountain 
clefts.  It  fans  its  way  through  the  winds  of  ocean,  tram- 
ples its  hoarse  surges,  and  mingles  them  with  flakes  of 
fire.  Civilization  follows  in  its  path.  It  achieves 
grander  victories,  it  weaves  more  durable  trophies,  it 
holds  wider  sway  than  the  conqueror.  His  name,  becomes 
tainted,  and  his  monuments  crumble ;  but  Labor  converts 
his  red  battle-fields  into  gardens,  and  erects  monuments 
significant  of  better  things.  It  writes  with  the  lightning. 
It  sits  crowned  as  a  queen  in  a  thousand  cities,  and  sends 
up  its  roar  of  triumph  from  a  million  wheels.  It  glistens 
in  the  fabrics  of  the  loom,  it  rings  and  sparkles  from  the 
steely  hammer,  it  glows  in  shapes  of  beauty,  it  speaks  in 


286  LIVING    WORDS. 

•words  of  power,  it  makes  the  sinewy  arm  strong  with 
liberty,  the  poor  man's  heart  rich  with  content,  and 
crowns  the  swarthy  and  sweaty  brow  with  honor,  and 
dignity,  and  peace. 


CONSIDERED  in  its  broadest  sense,  Labor  is  the  chosen 
sphere  of  God  himself,  through  which  he  continually 
manifests  his  attributes,  and  which  testifies  to  his  glory. 
In  the  great  field  of  the  universe  he  has  wrought  from 
the  beginning  until  now ;  and  beneath  his  instant  control 
creation  is  ever  at  work  in  all  its  parts,  and  in  it's  great 
whole,  from  the  ducts  and  valves  of  the  human  frame,  to 
the  motions  of  the  solar  system,  and  the  mazy  circles  of 
the  firmament.  It  is  the  price  of  all  attainment,  the  ap- 
pointed medium  of  all  true  power.  Men  may  exist  and 
not  work,  but  without  it  they  lack  the  essential  vigor  of 
life,  —  they  exist  as  the  sponge  on  the  rock,  or  the  weed 
by  the  wall.  Without  the  braced  action  of  the  brain  or 
the  muscles,  ornament  covers  only  emptiness,  and  wealth 
encircles  only  feebleness ;  while  there  is  no  sovereignty 
like  that  which  is  born  of  resistance  and  achievement, 
there  is  no  sceptre  like  the  strong  and  cunning  right 
hand. 


THE  purest  people  are  the  most  charitable.     All  noble 
natures  are  hopeful. 


LIVING    WORDS.  287 

THE  Christianity  of  our  age  is  not  merely  the  Christi- 
anity of  the  cathedral  or  the  cloister,  but  of  the  machine- 
shop  and  the  sidewalk ;  it  sets  the  pulpit  over  against  the 
shrine  of  mammon,  and,  as  it  were,  upon  the  deck  of 
every  vessel  that  goes  steaming  out  to  sea.  It  does  not 
favor  merely  a  little  number,  in  exclusive  sanctity  and 
consecrated  form;  it  sends  out  its  messengers  into  the 
streets  and  lanes,  the  highways  and  hedges,  and  the  poor, 
the  lame,  the  dumb,  the  blind  feel  the  breath  of  sympa- 
thy, and  come  creeping  their  way  into  its  blessed  light. 
Earnest  men  are  actually  finding  their  way  to  the 
Christian  faith  through  the  working  of  Christian  utib'ty. 
They  discover  what  Christianity  is  out  in  the  broad  life 
of  practical  action,  when  that  life  has  long  since  ebbed 
away  from  the  shells  of  creeds,  and  left  only  its  wave- 
mark  on  the  strata  of  tradition. 


A  CITY  is,  in  one  respect,  like  a  high  mountain ;  the 
latter  is  an  epitome  of  the  physical  globe ;  for  its  sides 
are  belted  by  products  of  every  zone,  from  the  tropical 
luxuriance  that  clusters  around  its  base  to  its  arctic  sum- 
mit, far  up  in  the  sky.  So  is  the  city  an  epitome  of  the 
social  world.  All  the  belts  of  civilization  intersect  along 
its  avenues.  It  contains  the  products  of  every  moral 
zone. 


288  LIVING    WORDS. 

I  WILL  tell  you  where  there  is  power :  "Where  the 
dew  lies  upon  the  hills,  and  the  rain  has  moistened  the 
roots  of  the  various  plants ;  where  the  sunshine  pours 
steadily ;  where  the  brook  runs  babbling  along ;  there  is 
a  beneficent  power. 


THE  great  saints  —  the  men  whose  names  stand  high- 
est in  the  calendar  of  the  church  universal  —  are  not  the 
ascetics,  not  the  contemplators,  not  the  men  who  walked 
apart  in  cloisters;  but  those  who  came  down  from  the 
Mount  of  Communion  and  Glory,  to  take  a  part  in  the 
world ;  who  have  carried  its  burdens  in  their  souls,  and 
its  scars  upon  their  breasts ;  who  have  wrought  for  its 
deepest  interests,  and  died  for  its  highest  good;  whose 
garments  have  swept  its  common  ways,  and  whose  voices 
have  thrilled  in  its  low  places  of  suffering  and  of  need  ;  — 
men  who  have  leaned  lovingly  against  the  world,  until 
the  motion  of  their  great  hearts  jars  in  its  pulses  forever ; 
men  who  have  gone  up  from  dust,  and  blood,  and  crackling 
fire ;  men  with  faces  of  serene  endurance  and  lofty  self- 
denial,  yet  of  broad,  genial,  human  sympathies ;  —  these 
are  the  men  who  wear  starry  crowns,  and  walk  in  white 
robes,  yonder. 


GATETY  is  often  the  reckless  ripple  over  depths  of 
despair. 


LIVING    WORDS.  289 

"  SWEAR  —  curse  Christ,"  said  the  proconsul  to  Poly- 
carp,  "  and  I  release  you."  —  "  Six-and-eighty  years  have 
I  served  him,"  replied  the  venerable  disciple,  "and  he 
has  done  me  nothing  but  good ;  and  how  could  I  curse 
him,  —  my  Lord  and  Saviour?"  His  was  a  vision  that 
pierced  the  barriers-of  the  grave,  and  saw  far  beyond  the 
principalities  and  powers  of  the  earth.  Above  the  mar- 
tyr's fire  hovered  a  glory  beneath  which  the  splendors  of 
this  world  grew  dim,  and  his  dripping  garments  turned 
to  coronation  robes.  The  dreadful  amphitheatre  swam 
away  from  before  his  sight,  the  ranged  spectators  faded, 
the  pinnacles  of  the  celestial  city  gleamed  upon  him ;  and 
he  saw  the  angels  casting  down  their  crowns ;  he  saw  mar- 
tyred Stephen  with  his  beatific  face,  and  the  long  line  of 
prophets,  who  before  him  had  gone  up  from  the  ordeal  of 
blood;  and  amidst  the  taunts  and  the  accusations,  and 
before  the  open  jaws  of  death,  he  was  able  to  "  rejoice," 
yea,  to  "be  exceeding  glad." 


Do  you  want  proof  of  immortality  ?  If  you  do  not 
feel  it ;  if  your  heart  and  consciousness  do  not  tell  you 
of  it ;  if  some  great  fact  of  life  has  not  brought  it  to  you, 
— some  great  loss — the  open  grave  of  some  friend,  or  the 
consciousness  of  some  limitation  against  which  you  chafe 
and  beat, — if  that  does  not  bring  immortality  home  to 
you  you  will  never  be  convinced  of  it. 
25 


290  LIVING     WORDS. 

CHRISTIANITY  is  not  a  religion  of  details.  It  is  not  a 
religion  of  codes,  precepts,  maxims.  It  is  a  religion  of 
great  principles,  all  imbued  with  the  self-sacrificing  life 
of  Christ  Jesus.  Away  with  your  nonsensical  sophistries, 
'that  Christianity  did  not  meddle  with  the  social  institu- 
tions of  its  time, — that  it  did  not  meddle  with  the  wrongs 
of  its  time.  It  meddled  with  them  just  as  the  acorn 
meddles  with  the  barren  soil  when  it  sends  up  the  oak ; 
just  as  the  seed  meddles  with  the  superincumbent  earth, 
as  it  quickens  slowly  and  surely  and  sends  up  its  harvest. 
No ;  Christ  said  nothing  against  the  priests  and  doctors 
of  the  law.  He  did  not  challenge  their  authority.  But, 
by  and  by,  somehow,  men  who  took  from  the  life  of 
Christ  stood  up  before  the  priests  and  magistrates,  and 
said,  Whether  it  be  right  in  the  sight  of  God  to  hearken 
unto  you  rather  than  unto  God,  judge  ye.  Though 
Christ  did  not  say  a  word  about  democracy;  though 
Christ  did  not  speak  against  Caesar,  but  says,  Render 
'  unto  Caesar  the  thing^s  that  are  Caesar's ;  though  he  did 
not  challenge  the  right  of  kings,  —  yet  somehow  kings' 
crowns  have  grown  dim  ever  since  Christianity  came  into 
the  world.  I  have  no  doubt  there  were  many  tons  of 
Christianity  in  the  hull  of  the  Mayflower,  and  its  text  was 
written  large  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Christ 
said  nothing ;  but  every  text  he  uttered  was  a  grain  of 
gunpowder,  to  crack,  and  shatter,  and  establish  the  life ; 
because  it  is  life  and  not  death ;  it  is  spiritual  in  form ; 


LIVING    WORDS.  291 


and  it  works  its  way,  slowly  but  surely  accomplishing 
its  ends. 


THE  baffled  hopes  of  our  mortal  state,  —  what  are  they 
but  vain  strivings  of  the  human  soul,  out  of  the  path  of 
its  highest  good?  The  wandering  bird,  driven  against 
the  branches,  and  beaten  by  the  storm,  flutters  at  last  to 
the  clear  opening  by  which  it  mounts  above  the  cloud, 
and  finds  its  way  to  its  home.  This  life  is  not  ordained 
in  vain;  —  it  is  constituted  for  a  grand  purpose,  if 
through  its  lessons  of  experience  we  become  convinced 
that  this  life  is  not  all. 


IF  we  look  upon  the  future  state  merely  for  its  outside 
garments  of  white,  and  its  crowns  of  gold,  —  its  privilege 
of  running  from  star  to  star,  and  being  here  and  there,  — 
we  degrade  our  conception  of  it.  If  we  think  of  it  as  a 
nobler  state  of  soul,  —  a  rising  spirit,  an  inlet  of  moral 
light,  of  moral  power,  —  then  we  get  the  grandeur  of  the 
future  state;  for  that  is  its  essential  element.  Come 
crowns  of  glory,  if  God  gives  them,  —  raiments  of  white, 
and  grand  palm-branches.  I  know  not  what  the  scenery 
of  that  state  may  be ;  but  I  know  that  the  most  blessed 
element  of  that  state  is  a  spirit  like  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
Christ,  who  lived  and  died  that  we  might  live. 


292  LIVING    WORDS. 

WHATEVER  is  inevitable  is  beneficent.  Whatever  lies 
in  the  constitution  of  nature  or  the  order  of  Providence, 
and  not  in  the  scope  of  human  agency,  we  may  believe  is 
essentially  wise  and  good.  The  law  of  growth  and  decay, 
in  its  comprehensive  operation,  unfolds  .a  benevolent  de- 
sign. The  autumn-phase  of  nature  is  but.  one  form  of  an 
ever-streaming  life,  —  a  preliminary  of  reproduction ;  and 
the  falling  leaf  is  not  only  a  herald  of  winter,  but  a 
prophecy  of  spring.  When  we  look  at  it  aright  we  detect 
the  same  good  power,  the  same  beneficent  agency  at 
work,  stripping  the  branches  of  the  forest  and  blighting 
the  grass,  as  that  which  scatters  enamelled  glories 
through  the  meadow,  and  unlocks  the  babbling  brook. 
And  though  here  the  operation  of  this  law  comes  more 
plainly  into  the  scope  of  our  vision,  and  more  rapidly  un- 
folds its  intent,  we  see  the  benefit  of  its  working  even  in 
wider  circles  and  in  grander  forms.  The  earth  on  which 
we  dwell  holds  a  record  of  the  same  great  law.  Here,  in 
these  "sunless  deeps,"  have  been  changes  inconceivably 
vast,  wrought  out  with  flood  and  flame.  Here  lie  effigies 
of  being  long  since  passed  away ;  —  the  medallions  of  suc- 
cessive dynasties  set  in  solid  stone.  And  as  with  the 
falling  leaf,  so  with  vanishing  epochs,  each  buried  form 
has  been  the  seed  of  a  higher  life,  —  each  changing  state 
the  preliminary  of  nobler  conditions.  So  with  nations, 
with  empires,  —  the  elements  of  human  progress,  the 
Providential  ends  of  history,  have~been  served  in  their 


LIVING    WORDS.  293 

decline  and  fall,  no  less  than  in  their  rise.  A  richer 
growth  of  civilization  has  sprung  up  in  their  ruins,  and 
their  perished  forms  have  made  room  for  ampler  institu- 
tions to  embody  nobler  ideas.  And  no  doubt  in  whatever 
shape  we  trace  this  process,  could  we  detect  its  profound- 
est  purposes,  and  grasp  all  its  relations,  we  should  still 
discover  beneficence  and  beauty.  The  mere  light  of 
nature  shows  such  glimpses,  even  in  that  stern  fact  which 
troubles  us  so  much  —  even  in  death.  It  is  not  without 
its  natural  explanations  and  comforts.  When  it  comes  in 
what  appears  its  due  season  it  seals  up  worn-out  powers, 
and  gives  release  from  decrepitude  and  pain.  The  old 
man  is  as  a  withered  leaf,  and  death  gently  removes  a 
fixed  incapacity,  a  worn-out  usefulness,  in  which  the  juices 
of  life  are  all  stagnant,  or  mixed,  it  may  be,  with  unfit 
prejudices,  and  gives  room  for  the  vigor,  the  new  thought, 
the  fresh  and  more  timely  action  of  another  generation. 
And  sweet  and  kindly  are  all  the  appliances  of  nature : 
kindly  the  film  that  gathers  over  the  failing  eyes,  the 
touch  that  softly  stops  the  weary  heart ;  sweet  the  clods 
into  which  moulders  the  mortal  dust,  the  sky  that  bends 
over  it,  the  flowers  that  deck,  the  dews  that  consecrate  it, 
as  it  mixes  with  the  larger  elements,  and,  may  be,  "  turns 
to  daisies  in  the  grave." 


THE  public  sense  is  in  advance  of  private  practice. 

26* 


294  LIVING    WORDS. 

I  WILL  tell  you  -what  to  me  is  one  of  the  strongest  proofs 
of  an  immortal  life.  It  is  a  true,  good,  blessed  life,  in  this 
•world.  I  see  a  man,  a  woman,  a  child,  or  a  friend  living 
a  life  of  purity,  of  love,  of  holiness,  —  aspiring  continu- 
ally to  something  higher  and  better,  putting  aside  every 
weight  of  evil,  overcoming  temptation,  rising  above  guilty 
passion,  becoming  pure  and  refined ;  and  in  such  a  person 
immortality  becomes  to  me  an  assurance.  Now,  of  all 
beings  Jesus  Christ  stands  before  me  as  the  emblem  of 
purity  of  such  excellence  that  immortality  becomes  to  me 
a  possibility  and  an  assurance.  And  thus,  in  the  personal 
resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  we  get  a  strength  of  convic- 
tion that  we  could  not  derive  from  abstract  reasonings. 
That  is  the  value  of  historical  Christianity.  That  is  the 
value  of  a  personal  Jesus. 


NOTHING  is  more  grand  than  man's  relation  to  spirit- 
ual beings,  —  than  the  fact  that  the  universe  is  filled 
up  with  blessed  intelligences.  I  do  not  need  to  see 
them,  or  hear  them,  to  be  convinced  of  this  fact.  I 
know  by  surer  sight  than  the  eye,  by  more  certain  hear- 
ing than  the  ear,  that  they  exist:  I  know  it  by  my 
vital  consciousness  of  a  God  and  of  a  heaven.  And 
Christianity  interprets  that  fact.  It  shows  man,  poor, 
wretched,  vile  as  he  may  be,  linked  with  these  innume- 
rable relations. 


LIVING    WOKDS.  295 

WHATEVER  in  the  system  of  things  is  inevitable  is 
beneficent.  The  dissolution  of  these  bonds  comes  by  the 
same  law  as  that  \vhich  ordains  them ;  and  we  may  be 
sure  that  the  one,  though  it  plays  out  of  sight,  and  is 
swallowed  up  in  mystery,  is  as  wise  and  tender  in  its  pur- 
pose as  the  other.  It  is  very  consoling  to  recognize  the 
hand  that  gave  in  the  hand  that  takes  a  friend,  and  to 
know  that  he  is  borne  away  in  the  bosom  of  Infinite  Gen- 
tleness, as  he  was  brought  here.  It  is  the  privilege  of 
angels,  and  of  a  faith  that  brings  us  near  the  angels,  to 
always  behold  the  face  of  our  Father  in  Heaven ;  and  so 
we  shall  not  desire  the  abrogation  of  this  law  of  dissolu- 
tion and  separation For  who  is  prepared  at  any 

time  to  say  that  it  was  not  better  for  the  dear  friend,  and 
better  for  ourselves,  that  he  should  go,  rather  than  stay ; 
—  better  for  the  infant  to  die  with  flowers  upon  its  breast 
than  to  live  and  have  thorns  in  his  heart ;  —  better  to 
kiss  the  innocent  lips  that  are  still  and  cold  than  to  see 
the  living  lips  that  are  scorched  with  guilty  passion ;  — 
better  to  take  our  last  look  of  a  face  while  it  is  pleasant 
to  remember  —  serene  with  thought,  and  faith,  and  many 
charities  —  than  to  see  it  toss  in  prolonged  agony,  and 
grow  hideous  with  the  wreck  of  intellect  ?  And  as  spirit- 
ual beings,  placed  here  not  to  be  gratified,  but  to  be 
trained,  surely  we  know  that  often  it  is  the  drawing  up 
of  these  earthly  ties  that  draws  up  our  souls ;  that  a  great 
bereavement  breaks  the  crust  of  our  mere  animal  con- 


296  LIVING    WORDS. 

sciousness,  and  inaugurates  a  spiritual  faith ;  and  we  are 
baptized  into  eternal  life  through  the  cloud  and  the 
shadow  of  death. 


WHAT  do  the  grand  capacities  of  our  nature,  always 
hungering  and  thirsting,  and  never  satisfied,  .signify? 
What  does  this  conviction  of  man,  that  burns  like  a  lamp 
in  the  darkness  of  the  shadow  -of  death,  and  will  not  hear 
of  such  a  fact  as  annihilation,  signify?  What  does  all 
that  achievement  of  the  human  races,  of  ever  higher  at- 
tainment, its  constant  development  of  a  higher  ideal,  sig- 
nify ?  Such  a  mind  as  that  just  gone  out  in  Europe,* 
casting  a  light  upon  so  many  other  minds ;  who  has  kin- 
dled within  us  some  of  tfcfe  grandest  intellectual  concep- 
tions; who  has  written  books  which,  however  false  in 
detail,  yet,  as  a  presentation  of  English  history,  —  as 
bringing  before  us,  in  the  grand  gallery  of  the  past,  the 
noble,  wise,  and  beautiful  forms,  —  will  live  as  long  as 
the  English  tongue  lives ;  —  what  means  a  mind  like 
that,  soaring  up  out  of  time  and  sense,  in  the  midst  of  a 
glorious  work  all  unfinished,  and  standing,  like  some  of 
those  old  cathedrals,  with  half  the  towers  down ;  —  what 
means  all  this  aspiring,  unfinished  capacity,  if  the  tra- 
dition of  scepticism  is  true  ? 

*  Lord  Macaulay.     • 


LIVING    WORDS.  297 

A  GREAT  peculiarity  of  the  Christian  religion  is  its 
transforming  or  transmuting  power.  I  speak  not  now  of 
the  regeneration  which  it  accomplishes  in  the  individual 
soul,  but  of  the  change  which  it  works  upon  things  with- 
out. It  applies  the  touchstone  to  every  fact  of  exist- 
ence, and  exposes  its  real  value.  Looking  through  the 
lens  of  spiritual  observation,  it  throws  the  realities  of  lifo 
into  a  reverse  perspective  from  that  which  is  seen  by  the 
sensual  eye.  Objects  which  the  world  calls  great  it  ren- 
ders insignificant,  and  makes  near  and  prominent  things 
which  the  frivolous  put  far  off.  Thus  the  Christian, 
among  other  men,  often  appears  anomalous.  Often, 
amidst  the  congratulations  of  the  world,  he  detects  rea- 
sons for  mourning  and  is  penetrated  with  sorrow.  On 
the  contrary,  where  others  shrink  he  walks  undaunted, 
and  converts  the  scene  of  dread  and  suffering  into  an  ante- 
chamber of  heaven Jesus  himself  weeps  amid  tri- 
umphant palms  and  sounding  hosannas,  while  on  the  cross 
he  utters  the  prayer  of  forgiveness  and  the  ejaculation  of 

peace. 

»• 
No  wonder,  then,  that  the  believer  views  the  ghastliest 

fact  of  all  in  a  consoling  and  even  a  beautiful  aspect,  and 
death  itself  becomes  but  sleep.  Well  was  that  trait  of 
our  religion  which  I  have  now  suggested  illustrated  at 
the  bed-side  of  Jairus'  daughter.  Well  did  that  noisy, 
lamenting  group  represent  the  worldly  -who  read  only  the 
material  fact,  or  that  flippant  scepticism  which  laughs  all 


298  LIVING    WORDS. 

supernatural  truth  to  scorn.  And  well  did  Jesus  repre- 
sent the  spirit  of  his  doctrine  and  its  transforming  powei 
•when  he  exclaimed,  "  She  is  not  dead,  but  sleepeth." 

Yes,  beautifully  has  Christianity  transformed  death 
To  the  eye  of  flesh  it  was  the  final  direction  of  our  fate, 
—  the  consummate  riddle  in  this  mystery  of  being,  —  tho 
wreck  of  all  our  hopes,  — 

"  The  simple  senses  crowned  his  head  ; 
Omega  !  thou  art  Lord,  they  said  ; 
We  find  no  motion  in  the  dead." 

Ever,  though  with  higher  desires  and  better  gleamings, 
the  mind  has  struggled  and  sunk  before  this  fact  of  decay, 
and  this  awful  silence  of  nature ;  while  in  the  waning  light 
of  the  soul,  and  among  the  ashes  of  the  sepulchre,  scepti- 
cism has  built  its  dreary  negation.  And  though  no 
mother  could  lay  down  her  child  without  taking  hints 
which  God  gave  her  from  every  little  flower  that  sprung 
on  that  grassy  bed,  —  though  the  inexhausted  intellect 
has  reasoned  that  we  ought  to  live  again,  and  the  affec- 
tions, more  oracular,  swelling  with  the  nature  of  their 
great  source,  have  prophesied  that  we  shall,  —  never, 
until  the  revelation  of  Christ  descended  into  our  souls,  and 
illuminated  all  our  spiritual  vision,  have  we  been  able  to  say 
certainly  of  death,  it  is  a  sleep.  This  has  made  its  outward 
semblance  not  that  of  cessation,  but  of  progression,  —  not 
an  end,  but  a  change ;  —  converting  its  rocky  couch  to  a 


LIVING     WORDS.  299 

birth-chamber,  over-casting  its  shadows  with  beams  of 
eternal  morning,  while  behind  its  cold  unconsciousness 
the  unseen  spirit  broods  into  higher  life. 


I  AM  just  as  sure  of  spiritual  things  through  the  facul- 
ties of  m y  soul,  as  interpreted  by .  Christianity,  as  ever 
Newton  or  Humboldt  were  sure  of  material  things  through 
the  faculties  of  the  brain  and  senses,  interpreted  by  sci- 
ence. Scepticism  stands  on  no  basis  at  all,  only  as  it 
stands  on  that  of  the  senses,  and  they  themselves  are  veri- 
fied in  their  last  result  by  consciousness  alone. 


EVERYTHING  around  us  shows  a  plan  and  a  purpose ; 
outward  nature  is  orderly  and  harmonious,  moves  steadily 
to  certain  ends;  and  we  cannot  suppose  that  humanity, 
and  all  the  spiritual  relations  with  which  humanity  is  in- 
volved, —  that  this  is  any  more  disorderly ;  we  cannot 
suppose  that  in  any  department  of  God's  working  there  is 
an  aimlessness  of  purpose,  of  end,  of  plan ;  and  if  not  in 
the  material  world,  much  less  in  the  moral  world  and  the 
realm  of  human  action. 


INDUCTION  is  simply  confidence  in  the  integrity  of 
nature. 


300  LIVING    WORDS. 

THOUGH  many  powerful  appeals,  many  solid  argu- 
ments, cannot  break  our  affections  from  this  earth,  the 
hand  of  a  departed  child  can  do  it.  The  voice  that  calls 
us  to  unseen  realities,  —  that  bids  us  prepare  for  the 
heavenly  land,  —  that  says  from  heights  of  spiritual  bliss 
and  purity,  "  Come  up  hither,"  —  that  voice  is  the  voice 
that  we  loved  so  on  earth,  end  gladly  can  we  rise  and  fol- 
low it.  Behold,  then,  what  a  little  child  can  perform  for 
us,  through  its  death !  It  makes  real  and  attractive  to 
us  that  spiritual  world  to  which  it  has  gone,  and  it  calls 
our  affections  from  earth  to  that  true  life  which  is  the 
great  end  of  our  being,  which  is  the  object  of  all  our 
discipline,  our  mingled  joy  and  suffering  here  upon  earth. 
That  little  child,  gone  from  its  sufferings  so  early,  — 
gone, 

"  Gentle  and  undefiled,  with  blessings  on  its  head,"  - 

has  it  indeed  become  a  very  angel  of  God  for  us,  and  is  it 
calling  us  to  a  more  spiritual  life,  and  does  it  win  us  to 

heaven Then  shall  we  behold  already  the  wisdom 

and  benevolence  of  our  Father  breaking  through  the 
cloud  that  overshadows  us.  Already  shall  we  see  that 
the  tie,  which  seemed  to  be  dropped  and  broken,  God 
has  taken  up  to  draw  us  closer  to  him,  and  that  it  is  in- 
terwoven with  his  all-gracious  plan  for  our  spiritual  profit 
and  perfection.  And  we  can  anticipate  how  it  will  all  be 
reconciled,  when  his  own  hand  shall  wipe  off  our  tears, 


LIVING    WORDS.  301 

and  the  bliss  of  reunion  shall  extract  the  last  drop  of  bit- 
terness from  "  the  cup  that  our  Father  hath  given  us." 


THE  grand  sweep  of  science,  in  this  day,  is  all  pressing 
toward  the  conviction  that  there  is  one  central  plan  at  the 
heart  and  core  of  the  universe ;  and  it  is  beautiful,  out  of 
these  diverse  operations  in  the  various  fields  of  human 
thought,  to  see  the  unity  toward  which  men  are  tending. 
Take  that  one  idea  of  typical  forms,  that  a  whole  class  of 
animals  is  constructed  upon  a  single  plan,  so  that  you  find 
in  the  paddles  of  the  whale,  the  long  fingers  of  the  bat, 
and  the  hoof  of  the  horse  exactly  the  same  bones  and  out- 
lines that  you  find  in  the  arm  of  a  developed  man ;  show- 
ing that  God  has  worked  upon  a  great  plan,  and  a 
beautiful  proof  not  only  of  the  unity  but  of  the  existence 
of  God ;  for  what  complicated  means  man  has  to  use  to 
attain  his  ends,  even  in  his  highest  mechanical  achieve- 
ments, while  God  takes  one  simple  plan,  and  behold  the 
diversified  results  that  come  out  of  that  simplicity ! 


IT  is  a  mistake  to  consider  marriage  merely  as  a  scheme 
of  happiness.  It  is  also  a  bond  of  service.  It  is  the  most 
ancient  form  of  that  social  ministration  which  God  has 
ordained  for  all  human  beings,  and  which  is  symbolized 
by  all  the  relations  of  nature. 

26 


302  LIVING    WORDS. 

You  cannot  put  your  hand  on  a  plant  or  a  stone,  or 
upon  anything,  and  say  this  is  an  end  in  itself.  It  is 
serving  some  other  end.  It  is  a  great  conduit  in  God's 
processes.  It  is  a  medium  through  which  God  works. 
Dig  down  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  and  there  are  in- 
strumentalities which  have  done  their  work,  —  which 
have  served  to  bring  about  the  present  result.  So  every- 
thing now  is  a  process,  helping  God's  work  onward,  —  an 
agent,  an  instrumentality,  tending  to  some  result  we  do 
not  yet  see. 


OUT  of  our  joy  and  our  acknowledged  good  the  Su- 
preme Disposer  works  his  spiritual  ends.  But  especially 
how  often  does  he  do  this  out  of  our  trials,  and  sorrows, 
and  so-called  evils  !  Life  is  God's  plan ;  not  ours.  For 
often  on  the  ruins  of  visionary  hope  rises  the  kingdom  of 
our  substantial  possession  and  our  true  peace ;  and  under 
the  shadow  of  earthly  disappointment,  all  unconsciously 
to  ourselves,  our  Divine  Redeemer  is  walking  by  our 
side. 


ELOQUENCE  is  a  kindling  process,  and  it  is  always  diffi- 
cult for  a  speaker  to  make  an  impression  upon  an  audience 
who  feel  more  than  he  does.  "When  the  locomotive  is  fired 
up,  and  snorting  for  a  start,  it  is  useless  to  attempt  to 
pump  more  steam  into  the  boiler  from  a  tea-kettle. 


LIVING    WORDS.  303 

THE  greatest  successes  grow  out  of  great  failures.  In 
numerous  instances  the  result  is  better  that  comes  after  a 
series  of  abortive  experiences  than  it  would  have  been  if 
it  had  come  at  once ;  for  all  these  successive  failures  in- 
duce a  skill  which  is  so  much  additional  power  working 

into  the  final  achievement The  hand  that  evokes 

such  perfect  music  from  the  instrument  has  often  failed 

in  its  touch,  and  bungled  among  the  keys Every 

disappointed  effort  fences  in  and  indicates  the  only  pos- 
sible path  of  success,  and  makes  it  easier  to  find.  We 
should  thank  past  ages  and  other  men,  not  only  for  what 
they  have  left  us  of  great  things  done,  but  for  the  herit- 
age of  their  failures.  Every  baffled  effort  for  freedom 
contributes  skill  for  the  next  attempt,  and  ensures  the  day 
of  victory Disappointment  is  the  school  of  achieve- 
ment, and  the  balked  efforts  are  the  very  agents  that  help 
us  to  our  purpose. 


THE  Apostle's  injunction,  "  Let  no  man  think  of  him- 
self more  highly  than  he  ought  to  think,"  implies  that 
there  is  a  certain  lawful  limit  of  self-esteem.  In  short, 
humility  really  contrasts  with  no  great  and  good  thing ; 
only  with  a  folly  which  is  as  transient  as  it  is  giddy ;  with 
a  pride  which  forgets  the  Almighty ;  and  with  that  liquid 
self-satisfaction  which,  in  a  universe  of  unlimited  progress 
and  possibility,  affronts  both  God  and  man. 


304  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  sheep  are  not  always  led  through  green  pastures. 
The  path  is  sometimes  bestrewn  with  craggy  rocks ;  some- 
times over  precipices.  Sometimes  the  storm  hangs  dark, 
the  whirlwinds  blow,  the  hail  cuts,  and  the  lightnings 
flash.  But  keep  near  to  the  Shepherd,  —  keep  on  up- 
ward through  the  darkness.  The  storm  will  pass  away, 
the  rugged  path  will  end,  and  the  Lord  who  is  our  shep- 
herd will  lead  us  at  last  into  the  green  pastures  and  be- 
side the  still  waters. 


TKIBULATION  does  not  come  in  as  something  that  walks 
upon  us  "  like  a  thief  in  the  night."  It  is  part  of  God's 
plan.  Nobody  can  read  this  universe  in  its  comprehen- 
siveness, or  take  up  life  in  all  its  parts,  without  believing 
that  trial  of  some  kind  is  a  part  of  the  plan  of  God  in  the 
ordering  of  our  lives. 


THAT  shock  *  rent  the  surrounding  air,  and  scattered 
death  through  that  terror-smitten  group,  and  startled  a 
nation.  But  it  did  not  rend  the  serene  vault  of  heaven, 
nor  shake  the  planets  from  their  courses.  Even  thus 
around  all  forms  of  evil  lie  infinite  depths  of  love,  and 
infallible  wisdom  weaves  the  vast  cycle  of  destiny. 

*  The  explosion  on  the  steamer  Princeton,  1844. 


LIVING    WORDS.  305 

AMID  surrounding  gloom  and  -waste, 

From  nature's  face  we  flee ; 
And  in  our  fear  and  wonder  haste 

0  nature's  Life !  to  thee. 
Thy  ways  are  in  the  mighty  deep ; 

In  tempests  as  they  blow ; 
In  floods  that  o'er  our  treasures  sweep ; 

The  lightning,  and  the  snow. 


o 


Though  earth  upon  its  axis  reels/ 

And  heaven  is  veiled  in  wrath, 
Not  one  of  nature's  million  wheels 

Breaks  its  appointed  path. 
Fixed  in  thy  grasp,  the  sources  meet 

Of  beauty  and  of  awe ; 
In  storm  and  calm  all  pulses  beat 

True  to  the  central  law. 

Thou  art  that  law,  whose  will  thus  done 

In  seeming  wreck  and  blight, 
Sends  the  calm  planets  round  the  sun, 

And  pours  the  moon's  soft  light. 
"We  trust  thy  love ;  thou  best  dost  know 

The  universal  peace ; 
How  long  the  stormy  force  should  blow, 

And  when  the  flood  should  cease. 

20* 


306  LIVING     WORDS. 

And  though  around  our  path  some  form 

Of  mystery  ever  lies, 
And  life  is  like  the  calm  and  storm 

That  checker  earth  and  skies, 
Through  all  its  mingling  joy  and  dread, 

Permit  us,  Holy  One, 
By  faith  to  see  the  golden  thread 

Of  thy  great  purpose  run. 


IT  would  be  a  sad  thing  if,  when  we  had  arrived  at  the 
conclusion  that  the  universe  works  by  law,  we  should 
stop  there.  Law  is  a  very  bleak  thing  to  us.  Law  has 
a  very  disconsolate  relation  to  us.  But  what  does  law 
imply  ?  A  purpose ;  —  a  lawgiver.  And  when  by  a  law 
of  this  life  calamity  comes  upon  you,  think  that  there  is  a 
Lawgiver  above  the  law.  Whatever  may  be  to  you  a 
problem  and  a  dilemma,  there  is  One  solving  it  out,  and 
the  very  perplexity  in  the  case  is,  that  your  eyesight  is 
narrow,  —  that  you  cannot  see  all  God's  plans. 


LET  every  man  be  free  to  act  from  his  own  conscience ; 
but  let  him  remember  that  other  people  have  consciences 
too ;  and  let  not  his  liberty  be  so  expansive  that  in  its 
indulgence  it  jars  and  crashes  against  the  liberty  of 
others. 


LIVING    WORDS.  307 

0,  SUBLIME,  glorious  faith  for  faltering,  disappointed 
man  to  fall  back  upon  !  —  that  Almighty  God  sits  at  the 
helm  of  the  universe,  and  steers  the  mighty  ship  through 
all  ages ;  that  his  will  is  sure  to  be  done ;  that  the  ordinance 
that  has  gone  from  his  mouth  will  not  be  balked ;  that 
Before  the  brightness  of  his  glory  all  darkness  will  pass 
away  •  that  before  the  infinitude  of  his  love  and  goodness 
all  evil  will  come  to  an  end,  and  in  due  time  he  will  regu- 
late the  earth  to  his  purpose,  and  gather  together  in  one 
all  things  in  Christ  Jesus. 


Do  we  feel  that  we  are  unworthy  because  we  are 
totally  depraved,  —  because  there  is  no  good  in  us  ?  I 
don't  know  why  a  man  should  feel  bad  about  that.  He 
can't  help  himself  any  more  than  an  insect  can  imprisoned 
in  a  stone. 


WHEN  we  undertake  to  embark  in  a  great  work  it  will 
not  do  to  depend  upon  ourselves  alone ;  we  must  feel  that 
we  are  placed  at  our  post  but  for  a  day,  and  that  there  is 
One  who  steers  the  ship,  who  guides  the  event,  and  will 
bring  it  out  all  right,  though  we  may  not  behold  it  in  our 
day  or  generation.  Our  duty  is  to  be  diligent  at  our  post, 
but  to  trust  to  One  who  is  over  and  above  us,  and  who 
will  accomplish  his  purpose  in  his  own  good  time. 


308  LIVING    WORDS. 

To  say  that  because  of  wild  fanaticisms  and  absurdities 
the  whole  mechanism  of  religion  is  all  superstition  would 
be  to  say  that  the  white  mist  at  Niagara  indicates  only  a 
mist,  instead  of  bearing  witness  to  the  awful  depth  of  the 
torrent-sweeps  that  are  below.  So  out  of  the  soul  of  man 
comes  the  mists  of  superstition ;  but,  instead  of  proving 
that  the  whole  is  superstition,  they  prove  the  awful  depth, 
the  legitimate  flow  of  the  great  God-given,  God-kindled 
love  that  is  in  the  heart  of  man. 


WE  have  not  the  innocence  of  Eden ;  but  by  God'a 
help  and  Christ's  example  we  may  have  the  victory  of 
Gethsemane. 


ON  the  burnt  wall  of  one  of  those  churches,*  beaming 
distinct  and  clear  through  all  their  defacement  and  de- 
lapidation,  stand  these  words :  "THE  LORD  SEETH."  It 
is  a  great  truth  which  through  all  the  convulsions  of 
time  and  the  revolutions  of  men  has  blazed  athwart  the 
everlasting  heavens.  It  is  a  truth  not  only  to  rebuke  but 
to  encourage  us  with  the  thought  that  the  great  Over- 
ruler  is  merciful,  weaving  often  his  beneficent  schemes 
under  clouds  of  blackness  and  storm. 

*  After  the  riot  in  Philadelphia,  1814. 


LIVING    WORDS.  309 

You  never  can  upset  religion.  It  is  one  of  the  grand, 
prominent  faculties  of  human  nature.  That  is  demon- 
strated. It  is  one  of  the  most  foolish  acts  of  folly  in  the 
world  to  talk  of  religion  as  some  superstition  that  is  going 
to  pass  away  in  time,  and  of  a  period  that  will  arrive 
when  all  men  shall  depend  merely  on  their  brains  for 
what  human  nature  wants  ;  and  when  all  religion  will  be 
looked  upon  just  as  strangely,  and  with  just  as  much 
ridicule,  as  we  now  look  back  upon  the  most  groveling 

superstitions  of  the  world But  man's  everlasting, 

deep  experience  contradicts  all  that ;  for  there  are  times 
when,  out  of  something  that  is  more  profound  and  more 
radical  than  reason  or  intelligence,  breaks  forth  the 
deep,  earnest  prayer,  "Lead  me  to  the  rock  that  is  higher 
than  I ! " 


IF  there  are  sounds  that  we  do  not  understand,  sights 
that  we  cannot  explain,  how  do  we  know  that  those 
sounds  come  from  any  superior  spheres,  or  that  those 
sights  are  spirit  presentations  ?  It  is  a  mere  adjudication 
and  verdict  of  the  senses.  Man  has  something  within 
him  deeper  than  the  senses,  which  demands  in  a  revela- 
tion something  that  authenticates  itself  to  that  deeper 
faculty  within  him;  and  therefore  strange  sounds  and 
sights  would  not  bo  a  satisfactory  form  or  process  of 
revelation. 


310  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  glory  of  Christianity  is  not  merely  the  lifting  up 
of  those  who  are  low  to  that  which  is  high,  but  the  com- 
ing down  of  that  which  is  high  to  that  which  is  low; 
strength  ministering  to  weakness,  purity  to  impurity, 
holiness  to  sin,  God  to  man.  That  is  the  great  pecul- 
iarity of  Christianity,  —  the  revelation  of  the  condescen- 
sion of  God. 


Mercy  ;  —  that  is  the  gospel ;  —  the  whole  of  it  in  one 
word.  There  are  great  truths  gloriously  beaming  around 
the  horizon  of  that  revelation  forever ;  mighty  sanctions 
are  there  to  i'nspire  us  and  to  lift  us  up ;  but  the  essence 
of  the  gospel  'is  its  mercy.  It  is  a  revelation  of  exhaust- 
less  love  and  power  unto  man ;  the  brightest  light  in  the 
darkest  spot;  the  greatest  condescension  in  the  lowest 
estate ;  the  holiest  brought  to  the  basest ;  the  all-pure  to 
the  deeply  sinful. 


How  many  look  upon  a  Presbyterian,  to-day,  as  a  man 
who  is  all  blue-fire  and  bitterness,  and  who  looks  upon 
the  world  and  humanity  at  large  just  as  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards did !  And  on  the  other  hand,  how  many  people 
think  that  a  Universalist  believes  that,  "  Live  any  way 
you  please,  you'll  land  in  glory  the  moment  you  die"! 
Now,  is  it  not  a  shame  indeed  that  one  should  not  know 
better  what  the  other  believes  ? 


LIVING    WORDS.  311 

MERCY  is  the  essence  of  all  love.  The  mother  of  the 
little  child  at  first  feels  strange  instincts  in  her  heart. 
Her  love  has  taken  no  form  other  than  that  of  mercy  to  a 
little  helpless  being  cast  upon  the  heaving  billows  of  her 
own  bosom.  If  you  find  a  family  where  there  is  a  poor, 
little,  weak  child,  it  is  beloved  more  than  all  the  rest. 
If  you  want  to  love  your  fellow-men  have  mercy  on 
them.  When  even  an  enemy  comes  before  you,  and  all 
power  to  hurt  you  is  gone,  you  can  forgive  and  love  him. 
And  so  I  suppose  we  may  say  that  the  love  of  God  for 
poor,  weak  man  is  mercy  for  him.  Guilty,  sinful,  de- 
graded as  he  is,  the  infinite  mercy  throbs  for  him.  Lov- 
ing mercy  is  the  spring  of  all  right  feeling,  as  doing 
justly  is  of  all  right  being. 


SLING  a  lexicon  and  the  Bible  at  the  head  of  every 
Universalist  and  Unitarian  you  find,  if  you  choose.  But 
how  dare  you  break  open  the  sanctity  of  his  heart  ?  How 
dare  you  judge  his  soul,  and  say  that  because  you  think 
there  is  a  veil  between  his  reason  and  his  right  judgment, 
therefore  God  has  no  access  to  his  heart,  and  he  has  never 
been  baptized  with  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ?  Is  not 
this  saying,  "  Because  I  am  right  in  opinion,  0  Univers- 
alist and  Unitarian  ft  I  am  better  than  you.  You  are  a 

% 
poor,  miserable,  and  morally  depraved  being,  because  you 

are  intellectually  wrong"? 


312  LIVING    WORDS. 

I  DON'T  ask  a  man  to  fellowship  my  opinions,  nor  to 
fellowship  me  personally.  Perhaps  such  a  fellowship 
would  be  as  disagreeable  to  me  as  to  him.  I  might  find 
it  as  inconvenient  and  as  unpleasant  to  be  associated  with 
him  as  with  a  lump  of  burning  sulphur  or  a  lump  of  ice. 
But  no  man  has  the  right  to  disfellowship  me  or  any  other 
man  from  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  because  of  what  he 
deems  to  be  a  falsity  in  my  intellectual  conceptions  of 
Christ,  —  imperfections  in  my  verbal  statements  of  Christ. 
There  is  no  man,  from  the  Pope  down  to  the  humblest 
Christian,  that  can  make  that  assumption  for  any  man 
that  walks  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 


OSTENTATION  is  the  signal-flag  of  hypocrisy.  The 
charlatan  is  verbose  and  assumptive;  the  Pharisee  is 
ostentatious,  because  he  is  a  hypocrite.  Pride  is  the 
master-sin  of  the  devil;  and  the  devil  is  the  father  of 
lies. 


THERE  is  the  large-souled  brother,  who  preaches  in 
Brooklyn,  and  who  will  permit  every  honest  man  to  call 
him  brother,  however  much  he  may  differ  in  opinion  from 
him ;  —  why,  his  great  heart,  at  every  pulsation,  leaps 
sixty  degrees  beyond  the  logical  Kmits  of  his  creed. 
"  The  voice  is  Jacob's  voice,"  "  though  the  hands  are  the 
hands  of  Esau." 


.   LIVING    WORDS.  313 

THE  larger  the  nature  the  larger  the  love.     Little, 

mean  natures  are  uncharitable  natures The  man 

that  always  has  a  hopeless,  sarcastic  sneer  for  his  fellow- 
men,  —  who  is  in  perpetual  fear  that  he  will  be  cheated 
by  them ;  —  look  out  for  that  man.  But  the  man  that 
hopes  or  trusts,  though  none  sees  the  evil  more  keenly 
than  he ;  the  man  who  sees  something  brighter  than  the 
sin,  —  who  sees  the  light  shining  around  all ;  —  that  man 
has  a  noble  nature,  —  a  larger  and  more  persistent  love. 


THERE  is  less  misery  in  being  cheated  than  in  that 
kind  of  wisdom  which  perceives,  or  thinks  it  perceives, 
that  all  mankind  are  cheats. 


THAT  son  of  infamy  is  still  a  man,  though  his  manhood 
is  crushed  and  disfigured ;  he  is  still  the  offspring  of  God, 
not  unwatched  by  him,  not  outside  the  circle  of  his  help. 
Why,  then,  should  you  and  I  cast  him  off,  and  stand  aloof? 
Daughter  of  shame  !  representative  of  discrowned  woman- 
hood !  as  that  pure  and  pitying  heaven  stretching  over 
thy  alien  head  does  mercy  regard  thee,  —  with  sorrow, 
yet  with  trust,  —  as  one  in  whom  the  sanctities  of  thy 
nature  have  not  all  perished ;  as  one  for  whom,  through 
the  blackness  and  the  fire,  and  through  penitent  tears, 
there  is  yet  redemption. 
27 


314  LIVING     WORDS. 

HUMANITY  is  so  constituted  that  the  basest  criminal 
represents  you  and  me,  as  well  as  the  most  glorious  saint 
that  walks  on  high.  We  are  reflected  in  all  other  men ; 
all  other  men  are  embodied  in  us. 


• 
"  WE  have  known  and  believed  the  love  that  God  hag 

to  us."  What  is  it  we  know  and  believe  ?  A  fact  that 
is  unalterable ;  not  a  theological  conclusion  which  would 
make  God  love  for  the  saints,  and  not  for  all.  Right  or 
wrong,  saint  or  sinner,  here  it  stands,  that  God  is  love. 
While  we  were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for  us.  God  so 
loved  —  what  ?  So  loved  the  Jews  ?  So  loved  the  pecul- 

\ 

iar  Christian?  So  loved  this  man  or  that?  No;  "  God 
so  loved  the  world."  Hear  it,  narrow  theologians,  with 
your  cramped  notions  of  God  Almighty's  grace :  God  so 
loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son  to  die 
for  us.  The  primary  fact  is  love,  and  it  is  beyond  all 
human  recognition  or  acceptance  of  that  love. 


HUMILITY  is  not  a  weak  and  timid  quality.  It  must 
be  carefully  distinguished  from  a  groveling  spirit.  There 
is  such  a  thing  as  an  honest  pride  and  self-respect. 
We  should  think  something  of  our  humanity,  and  not 
cast  it  under  men's  feet.  Though  we  may  be  servants 
of  all,  we  should  be  servile  to  none. 


LIVING    WORDS.  315 

CHRISTIANITY  was  a  revelation,  —  not  a  revolution. 
Christ  came  to  show  us  what  eternally  was ;  not  to  make 
an  alteration  in  God's  economy.  He  came  to  show  us  an 
eternal  fact,  which  man  did  not  comprehend ;  not  to  alter 
the  nature  of  God's  government,  or  the  aspect  of  God 

toward  man God  loves  man,  and  loved  him  from 

the  foundation  of  the  world ;  and  out  of  the  springs  of  this 
love  came  forth  all  the  phenomena  of  Christianity,  and  all 
the  vehicles  of  his  grace. 


WHAT  is  that  announcement  of  love  which  shines  in 
the  gospel  ?  0  !  it  is  the  expression  of  God's  love  for 
the  sinful,  his  care  for  the  cast-a-way,  his  reaching  out 
for  the  far-off,  his  pleading  with  the  obdurate,  his  calling 
the  prodigal  to  come  to  his  arms.  It  is  the  proclamation 
of  God's  sympathy  with  all  that  is  human,  —  his  care  and 
love  for  it,  his  searching  for  it  through  Christ  Jesus,  like 
the  shepherd  for  his  lost  sheep,  or  the  woman  for  the  lost 
piece  of  silver;  it  is  the  consorting  of  Christ  with  the 
poor  and  depraved  outcast,  while  he  turned  away  from 
the  formal,  and  self-righteous,  and  respectable, — his  going 
among  those  that  were  far  away  from  the  right  and  the 
truth ;  —  it  is  this  which  makes  the  peculiarity  of  the  gos- 
pel. It  is  this  which  is  its  divine  power.  It  is  all  con- 
firmed and  all  explained  in  the  Apostle's  declaration  that 
God  is  love. 


316  LIVING    WORDS. 

0  MAN  !  when  that  Christian  truth  blazes  in  upon 
your  mind,  through  the  mists  of  the  darkness  of  your 
sin,  in  the  blind  groping  in  your  own  evil  -ways;  when 
the  love  of  God  streams  in  upon  you  Irke  the  light  of  the 
morning ;  when  your  whole  soul  wakes  up  to  it,  and  you 
surrender  to  that  love,  and  know  it,  and  by  it  are  regene- 
rated and  brought  into  new  relations  to  God ;  —  that  is 
religious  life.  They  may  cram  a  creed  upon  you ;  they 
may  try  to  bind  you  up  in  ceremonies  and  ligatures, 
to  lead  you  to  the  true  church.  That  consecrated  cord 
binds  you  to  the  great  living  heart  of  God,  and  makes  it 
vital  to  you.  That  is  the  passport  to  heaven,  and  the 
essence  of  religion. 


IT  is  the  privilege  of  true  souls  to  believe  and  know 
the  love  God  has  to  them.  It  is  the  sadness  of  sinful, 
guilty  souls  that  they  do  not  know  and  do  not  believe  the 
love  God  has  to  them. 


So  long  as  you  are  conscious  enough  of  evil  propensi- 
ties, of  bad  passions,  to  think  of  them  even  as  an  antag- 
onist, —  so  long  as  they  loom  up  here  and  there,  suggesting 
evil,  —  so  long  have  they  some  sort  of  victory  over  you. 
But  when  you  rise  into  the  pure  impulse  of  moral  affec-  ' 
tion,  which  sets  you  to  gravitating  and  sweeping  toward 
the  right,  evil  has  lost  all  power  over  you. 


LIVING    WORDS.  317 

WHO  but  woman  —  when  Judas^  betrayed,  and  Peter 
denied,  and  the  weary  slept,  and  the  fearful  fled  —  could 
summon  energy  to  linger  around  the  cruel  and  despised 
spot,  to  mingle  the  tears  of  pity  with  the  blood  of  suffer- 
ing. Who  but  woman,  when  man  turned  coward,  and 
his  trust  grew  faint,  could  stand  until  the  last  by  the  dy- 
ing Saviour,  and  then  go  to  trim  the  lamp  of  her  devotion 
at  the  door  of  his  sepulchre  ? 


IF  we  are  not  sure  of  God's  love  we  are  sure  of  nothing. 
If  this  is  not  the  central  truth  in  God's  universe  we  know 
nothing  of  God  or  the  immense  realities  which  surround 
us.  If  this  is  not  true,  welcome  any  theory,  any  creed, 
any  form  of  faith.  But  if  it  is  true  all  things  fall  into 
their  proper  order,  and  nature  has  its  interpretation,  which 
we  are  encouraged  to  pursue  to  the  utmost  limits.  His- 
tory has  its  explanation ;  and  in  the  darkest  crisis,  when 
the  hearts  of  men  fail  for  fear,  —  when  nationalities  crack, 
—  when  conflicts  arise,  —  when  the  earth  rends  and  the 
heavens  darken,  —  we  have  no  fear  of  him  who  sends  over 
all  the  arching  bow  of  promise,  and  guides  the  nations  in 
the  working  of  his  unfailing  love. 


THERE  is  often  a  way  of  warring  with  the  wrong  which 
is  as  unconsecrated  and  as  bad  as  the  wrong  itself. 

27* 


'318  LIVING    WORDS. 

CHRIST  demands  something  more  than  public  and 
formal  honors.  To-day  he  will  be  honored  in  I  know  not 
how  many  churches.  There  is  a  grandeur  in  the  old 
Roman  Catholic  service  that,  when  you  take  the  mere 
poetry  of  it,  heaves  a  man  up  almost  above  this  world. 
And  to-day,  all  round  the  globe,  from  the  white-crowned 
Andes  to  the  hot  plains  of  Africa,  millions  and  millions 
will  be  chanting  the  same  great  theme,  and  in  spirit,  as  it 
were,  casting  palm-branches  before  Christ.  There  will 
be  a  great  acknowledgment  of  his  name  and  his  dignity ; 
but  how  much  of  him,  after  all,  in  the  heart,  —  how  much 
real  life-surrender  and  loyal  service  ?  He  does  not  want 
merely  public  and  formal  honors,  such  as  come  from  the 
rituals  of  churches,  —  a  traditional  and  ceremonial  ac- 
knowledgment, —  but  that  of  the  heart. 


EVERY  man  has  at  least  this  gift,  —  this  one  charge  to 
keep :  his  own  soul  to  take  care  of  and  look  after.  High 
or  low,  rich  or  poor,  God  endows  him  with  that.  0  !  no 
coronet  that  in  his  providence  he  sets  upon  the  brow  of  a 
king ;  no  weapon  that  in  the  course  of  events  is  put  into  the 
hands  of  a  conqueror ;  no  gift  of  eloquence,  or  poetry,  or 
philosophy,  or  science  that  moves  the  world,  is  to  you  so 
great,  and  in  God's  sight  so  essential  and  so  important,  as 
your  own  soul,  with  its  immortal  destinies,  with  its  limit- 
less capacities,  with  its  deathless  affections. 


LIVING    WORDS.  319 

MEN  show  their  respect  for  the  Bible  by  bringing  it 
into  courts  of  justice,  making  a  statute-book  of  it,  and 
reading  it  before  judge  and  jury.  Why  don't  you  make 
it  the  oracle  that  will  prevent  such  acts  as  lead  to  courts 
of  justice?  Why  don't  you  cherish  it  in  the  private 
sanctuary  of  the  soul,  0  adulterer  and  murderer !  —  0 
man  in  the  evil  hour  of  temptation !  Why  don't  you 
read  it,  and  make  it  an  oracle  there  ? 


ALL  the  distinctions  that  are  thrust  upon  you  do  not 
prove  that  you  are  living  as  a  true  man.  They  may 
prove  quite  the  contrary. 


TERRIBLE  is  the  electric  force  which  thunders  through 
space  and  blasts  all  opposition ;  but  stronger  still  is  that 
affectionate  magnetism  —  that  unseen  heart  of  nature  — 
whose  pulses  mix  with  all  things,  and  that  draws  all 
things  into  beautiful  obedience  to  its  law.  It  is  an  over- 
whelming energy  with  which  a  comet  sweeps  along  its 
track ;  but  it  is  not  so  great  as  that  which  holds  the  plan- 
ets to  their  centre,  and  binds  them  in  glittering  harmony 
forever.  And  this  is  the  ultimate  power,  —  the  power 
of  being,  rather  than  of  doing.  A  majestic  repose,  a 
silent  strength,  is  the  highest  mood  of  nature. 


320  LIVING    WORDS. 

IT  seems  to  be  thought  that  the  essential  quality  which 
constitutes  a  Christian  is  a  kind  of  phantom  excellence, 
which  keeps  in  the  back-ground  of  life,  or  glides  timidly 
among  its  realities ;  and  that  if  a  man  is  going  to  grapple 
with  this  tough,  old,  dusty  world,  and  hammer  his  way 
through  it,  and  get  anything  out  of  it,  he  must  do  it  by 
dint  of  the  earth-spirit  that  is  in  him.  This  is  all  a  mis- 
take. On  the  contrary,  the  fibres  of  all  real  manliness 
are  in  Christian  discipline ;  and  a  good  deal  which  passes 
for  power  in  the  world  —  this  blustering,  passionate  en- 
ergy —  is  essentially  weakness There  is  always  a 

greater  mastery  evinced  in  the  control  than  in  the  exer- 
cise of  power Chaos  is  a  condition  of  unrestrained 

forces ;  order  is  a  condition  of  forces  held  in  obedience  to 
law.  And  so  it  is  with  that  world  which  every  man  car- 
ries within  himself,  —  his  moral  or  spiritual  nature.  Tho 
angry  man  may  evince  more  energy  than  he  who  keeps 
calm  in  the  heat  of  provocation ;  but  evidently  the  latter, 
who  gives  not  way  to  passion — who  controls  it — is  the  man 
of  most  power.  Again,  we  may  call  that  man  a  master- 
spirit of  his  age  who  rides  on  the  ^ whirlwind  of  popular 
sentiment,  and  even  directs  it ;  but  he  is  stronger  who  re- 
sists the  spirit  of  his  time ;  who  stands  up  and  steadily 
bears  against  it ;  and  who,  firm  in  his  conviction  of  princi- 
ple, cannot  be  carried  away  by  all  the  tides  of  faction. 
The  one  merely  yields  to  pressing  facilities ;  the  other  has 


LIVING    WORDS.  321 

to  exert  moral  nerve  and  resist  them.  Indeed,  all  vehe- 
mence and  impetuosity  is  a  quality  of  crudeness,  and  a 
sign  of  imperfection.  It  belongs  to  anarchy  rather  than 
authority ;  to  declamation  instead  of  argument.  As  illus- 
trated in  individual  life,  it  pertains  to  the  period  of  the 
passions,  and  to  the  lower  development  of  character. 
Boisterous  activity  is  the  fitting  expression  of  childhood ; 
the  demand  of  predominating  and  unfolding  nature ;  and 
the  control  of  sensual  impressions  is  evident  in  hot  energy 
and  emphatic  gesticulation.  But.  the  strength  of  true 
manhood,  when  deep  springs  of  experience  have  opened 
within,  when  wisdom  has  bound  its  cincture  about  the 
forehead,  and  when  the  soul  has  the  clear  vision  of  faith 
and  prayer,  is  indicated  by  a  majestic  repose.  This  is  the 
idea  of  power  expressed  in  the  highest  art,  —  not  the 
awful  front  of  Jupiter,  nor  the  exuberance  of  Apollo,  nor 
in  any  salient  virtue  even ;  but  the  calm  rapture  of  the 
martyr  looking  upward  from  the  fire ;  the  face  of  Jesus 
crowned  with  thorns.  And  when  one  has  reached  that 
degree  of  spiritual  attainment  in  which  appetite  is  chained 
and  passion  controlled ;  when  love,  which  is  the  highest 
attribute,  the  very  essence  of  God,  has  become  transfused 
through  one's  being,  so  that  he  can  forbear,  and  forgive, 
yea,  even  pray  for  an  enemy;  when  his  vision  has  become 
so  steady  and  clear  as  to  God's  workings  and  his  provi- 
dence that  he  can  meet  all  the  stings  and  sorrows  of  life 


322  LIVING     WORDS. 

with  submission,  and  overcome  them  with  trust,  —  it  is 
only  through  labor,  —  through  long  conflict  and  great 
spiritual  energy ;  and  there  is  no  higher  manifestation  of 
human  power. 


I  DO  riot  want  any  of  that  kind  of  respect  for  the 
clergyman  that  Avill  check  a  man  from  swearing  in  his 
presence  :  "  Ah,  I  beg  pardon ;  I  see  there  is  a  minister 
present."  Never  beg  my  pardon  for  swearing.  If  you 
don't  care  about  offending  God  you  need  not  trouble  your- 
self about  offending  me.  0,  this  miserable,  mean  kind 
of  respect  that  is  felt  for  the  mere  formalities  and  decen- 
cies of  religion,  when  Jesus  Christ  is  turned  out  of  doors  ! 


THOSE  who  have  moved  the  world's  heart,  and  changed 
the  aspects  of  humanity  —  the  apostles  of  truth  and  of  love . 
—  have  acted  strenuously ;  yet  their  real  life  was  not  in 
action,  but  endurance.  They  learned  to  overcome  them- 
selves, —  to  endure  as  well  as  to  hope  all  things ;  and 
thus  were  enabled  to  act  powerfully  upon  others.  Within 
themselves  they  nourished  the  still  seeds  of  thought  in  the 
eunshine  of  reason  and  with  the  dew  of  prayer. 


Is  there  anything  so  wretched  to  look  at  as  a  man  of 
fine  abilities  doing  nothing  ? 


LIVING    WORDS.  323 

MEN  differ  in  strength  and  capacity  of  heart ;  so  that 
some  men  are  distinguished  by  the  fact  that  in  all  calami- 
ties, in  all  trials,  they  gather  out  of  their  hearts  the  re- 
sources of  a  new  and  better  life  It  is  just  like  a  perpetual 
spring  within  them.  If  one  form  of  contemplated  good 
perishes,  if  one  hope  drops  away,  if  one  resource  fails, 
down  they  go,  down  into  their  hearts  again,  and  call  up 
something  else.  A  great,  strong  heart  is  never  overcome. 
It  finds  its  own  resources,  and  falls  back  into  its  own  pos- 
sibilities. It  is  sad  to  find  a  man  who  says  "  I  have  no 
heart;"  to  see  a  forlorn  creature  who  says  "I  have 
no  power  to  struggle  any  more."  But  as  long  as  there  is 
no  blight  or  taint  the  power,  the  possibility  of  the  man. 
is  left.  There  was  our  gifted  historian,*  who  died  so 
suddenly  the  other  day.  See  how  that  physical  calamity 
which  occurred  to  him  in  his  early  years  would  have  af- 
fected some  men.  They  would  have  crouched  literally  by 
the  way-side  of  life ;  and  even  if  they  had  had  that  man's 
powers  they  would  have  made  their  calamity  an  excuse 
for  a  life  of  idleness  and  waste.  How  was  it  with  him  ? 
He  fell  back  into  his  own  great  and  noble  heart,  and  out 
of  it  he  brought  up  new  life,  which  became  to  him  a 
strength  and  power  that  perhaps  he  never  would  have  ex- 
hibited had  not  that  misfortune  happened  to  him.  But 
for  that  he  might  have  been  a  scholar,  or,  much  worse,  a 

*  Prescott. 


324  LIVING     WORDS. 

politician ;  but  the  twilight  of  almost  total  blindness  hav- 
ing fallen  on  him,  he  called  up  those  powers  and  concen- 
trated them  upon  the  great  work  of  history;  and  when 
building  up  this  historical  structure  — just  as  an  architect 
builds  up  a  great  cathedral,  like  that  at  Cologne,  standing 
forth  majestic  and  glorious — he  profited  by  the  very  ca- 
lamity that  excluded  him.  from  other  pursuits  and  aims. 
Yea,  and  with  a  still  nobler  spirit,  when  others  lamented 
his  calamity,  and  sought  to  condole  with  him  in  his  mis- 
fortune, he  sang  songs  in  the  night,  and  spoke  noble  words 
of  cheer  and  encouragement.  Now,  I  say  it  was  not  out 
of  the  intellect,  but  out  of  a  noble  and  faithful  heart 
streamed  forth  that  beautiful  life  which  made  this  man 
one  of  the  stars  in  the  constellation  of  our  literature. 


THE  soul  possessed  with  endurance  appears  as  we  have 
seen  the  moon  on  a  gusty  night,  —  gliding  amidst  rack 
and  shadow,  yet  brightening  the  clouds  through  which  it 
passes ;  and  ever  and  anon  sailing  upward,  with  a  calm 
sorrow  on  its  face,  into  clear  spaces  of  the  sky. 


THE  great  power  of  the  gospel  to  me  is  its  immediate 
application  to  my  wants,  to  my  soul's  life,  to  my  best  de- 
sires, to  my  immortal  prospects.  That  is  the  everlasting 
verification  of  it  to  me. 


LIVING    WORDS.  325 

THESE  restless  wheels  of  nature  —  this  toil  and  travail 
of  humanity  —  have  an  end  beyond  themselves.  Were 
the  working  of  things  fitful  and  uncertain  we  might  infer 
otherwise.  But  this  vast  machinery  of  change,  bound 
about  with  eternal  unchangeableness,  —  this  incessant 
moving  to  and  fro,  —  this  steady  swing  of  order,  now  and 
always,  —  indicates  design ;  reveals  a  power  and  a  plan, 
by  which  and  for  which  it  moves 

Surely,  all  this  movement  —  this  regular  working  —  is 
not  aimless.  The  sun  climbing  and  descending  his  daily 
path,  the  wind  sailing  in  its  circuit,  the  waters  drawn  up 
into  the  atmosphere  and  poured  back  into  the  sea,  —  these 
valves  and  arteries  of  force  do  not  confirm  a  dreary  scepti- 
cism, but  they  suggest  faith  in  the  spiritual  energy  which 
moves  them,  and  in  the  moral  ends  for  which  they  move. 

If  we  would  but  clear  our  eyes,  and  gaze  with  fresh 
vision  up  into  the  night,  this  very  routine  of  obedient, 
silent  nature  —  this  incessant  roll  of  worlds  —  itself 
would  suggest  a  high  destiny,  —  a  great  object  in  life,  — 
something  far  beyond  the  indulgence  of  the  flesh  or  the 
limits  of  the  grave. 


IT  is  better  to  sell  to  the  intemperate  than  to  the  sober, 
— to  the  degraded  than  to  the  respectable, — for  the  same 
reason  that  it  is  better  to  burn  up  an  old  hulk  than  to  set 
fire  to  a  new  and  splendid  ship. 
28 


326  LIVING     WORDS. 

WHAT  should  we  do  in  times  of  civil  discord  and  political 
corruption,  —  in  hours  when  truth  is  shamed,  when  righte- 
ousness is  balked,  and  rampant  and  violent  wrong  stalks 
in  our  midst,  —  if  we  did  not  believe  that  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  yet  to  come  through  all  changes  and  over  all  oppo- 
sition ?  As  sure  as  there  is  a  God,  it  is  to  come.  It  is  to 
manifest  itself  in  a  sweeter  love,  in  a  broader  truth,  and 
in  a  more  radical  righteousness. 


THERE  is  not  a  result  in  science  which  does  not  rest 
upon  faith.  There  is  not  a  trophy  in  the  material  wrorld, 
without  faith  in  the  New  Testament  sense — confidence — 

back  of  it Here  are  the  ships  which  breast  the 

ocean's  foam,  and  toss  the  Atlantic  into  diamonds  of  spray, 
freighted  with  commerce  ;  and  this  is  practical.  It  is  not 
searching  into  an  old,  musty  theology  for  visionary  views. 
It  is  practical.  Very  well;  what  does  it  rest  upon?  Con- 
fidence, —  trust.  If  you  do  not  trust  the  man  yonder  at 
the  end  of  the  world  —  in  China  or  Japan  —  snap  goes 
the  thread  of  commerce.  If  you  do  not  trust  your  neigh- 
bor in  Broadway  or  Wall-street,  away  goes  your  inter- 
communication. If  you  believe  every  man  you  meet  to 
be  cheating  you,  what  kind  of  a  social  life  should  you 
have?  Everything  rests  upon  faith  the  same  as  in  tho 
New  Testament  —  confidence. 


LIVING    WORDS.  327 

SORROW  itself  suggests  something  better.  Common  ex- 
perience will  testify  that  affliction  does  not  fall  upon  us  as 
a  final  blow ;  not  as  an  end  but  as  an  agent ;  oping  for  us 
new  springs  of  consciousness  and  of  power.  Life  assumed 
a  greater  meaning  for  yonder  mother  —  her  soul  became 
a  more  eloquent  interpreter — when  that  babe  first  rested 
in  her  arms,  and  reflected  indefinable  love  and  wonder 
into  her  eyes.  But  still  more  grand  became  the  meaning 
of  existence  —  still  more  emphatic  the  oracle  of  her  soul 
—  when  that  innocence  and  beauty  were  taken  from  her 
sight.  For  then  she  felt  the  deathlessness  of  affection ; 
then  she  became  assured  of  immortality. 

And  for  how  many  does  sorrow  break  up  the  surface 
/of  life,  like  a  strong  plough-share,  and  lay  open  those 
depths  which  are  hidden  by  the  calmness  of  pros- 
perity !  .  .  .  .  Through  its  ministry  there  comes  a  pro- 
founder  vision,  more  solemn  but  nobler  thoughts,  and  the 
blossoming  of  better  hopes.  The  exposure  of  finite  weak- 
ness lets  in  the  concption  of  the  infinite.  The  sense  of 
dependence  leads  us  to  God.  In  fact,  the  touch  of  afflic- 
tion awakens  a  feeling  of  the  supernatural.  In  its  pres- 
ence frivolity  grows  still,  and  the  worst  men  think  of 
prayer. 


IN  this  world  the  disposition  to  do  things  is  of  more 
consequence  than  the  mere  power. 


328  LIVING     WORDS. 

IF  we  give  to  this  life  of  ours  only  a  material  interpre- 
tation, —  such  an  interpretation  as  thousands  practically 
do  give,  —  then  the  entire  mechanism  of  things  .is  an  in- 
explicable monotony. 


IF  we  estimate  things  by  a  spiritual  standard  a  man's 
earthly  being  may  contain  more  than  all  the  cycles  of  the 
material  world.  From  the  best  point  of  view,  life  is  not 
merely  a  term  of  years  and  a  span  of  action ;  it  is  a  force, 

—  a  current  and  depth  of  being Has  not  each 

one  of  us  at  times  realized  that  he  lived  a  year  in  a  single 
day,  —  in  a  moment,  —  in  an  emotion  or  thought  ?  Nay, 
could  the  experience  be  measured  by  any  estimate  of  time  ? 
And  if  we  should  compute  the  length  of  any  life  by  such 
experiences,  and  not  by  a  succession  of  years,  would  it  not 
be  a  long  life  ?  At  least,  would  it  not  be  a  full  and  im- 
measurable life? 


I  FIND  in  one  of  our  papers  a  grievous  complaint 
because  some  rum-seller  has  set  up  a  portrait  of  Wash- 
ington in  his  bar-room;  and  it  is  called  a  desecration. 
So  it  may .  be ;  but  is  there  not  a  greater  desecration 
there  ?  la  there  not  a  desecration  of  the  image  of  God 
set  up  among  those  rum-casks  and  liquor-barrels  ?  The 
image  of  God  there  becomes  degraded,  polluted,  and  cast 
down. 


LIVING    WORDS.  329 

BOOKS  !  —  the  chosen  depositories  of  the  thoughts, 
the  opinions,  and  the  aspirations  of  mighty  intellects; 
—  like  wondrous  mirrors  that  have  caught  and  fixed 
bright  images  of  souls  that  have  passed  away ;  —  like 
magic  lyres,  whose  masters  have  bequeathed  them  to  the 
world,  and  which  yet,  of  themselves,  ring  with  unforgot- 
ten  music,  while  the  hands  that  touched  their  chords  have 
crumbled  into  dust.  Books  !  —  they  are  the  embodi- 
ments and  manifestations  of  departed  minds,  —  the  living 
organs  through  which  those  who  are  dead  yet  speak  to  us. 
Books !  —  they  are  the  garners  in  which  are  stored  the 
wisdom  bought  by  toil  and  study,  —  the  gorgeous  dreams 
of  the  poet,  the  maxims  of  the  philosopher,  the  skilful  de- 
lineations of  the  true  observer,  the  histories  of  mighty 
deeds,  the  wonders  of  distant  lands,  the  records  of  precious 
facts,  —  the  messengers  which  the  wise  and  the  good  send 
to  us,  laden  with  treasures  for  every  mental  want,  and 
precepts  for  every  duty. 


THE  man  we  read  of,  whose  personality  is  so  hidden  in 
dirt  that  the  assessors  rate  him  as  real  estate,  —  the  man 
who  beats  the  feat  of  writing  the  Ten  Commandments  in- 
side the  circumference  of  a  dime,  and  gets  the  Law  and 
the  Prophets,  the  Decalogue,  New  Testament  and  all,  a 
great  ways  inside  of  a  ten-cent  piece,  —  such  men  do  not 

live. 

28* 


330  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  autumn-season  of  the  year  and  of  human  life  are 
alike  from  the  hand  of  God ;  and  a  beneficent  purpose  un- 
folds itself  through  all  these  passages  of  change.  "We 
know  that  the  first,  notwithstanding  its  melancholy  and 
decay,  discharges  a  beneficial  office  in  the  economy  of 
things,  —  presenting  the  fruits  of  the  earth  for  ingather- 
ing, affording  to  nature  a  period  of  recovery,  and  in  its 
work  of  desolation  preparing  for  new  life  and  beauty. 
And  surely  it  is  thus  in  our  mortal  lot.  In  the  entire 
circle  of  being,  death  is  an  inevitable  yet  transitional  pro- 
cess. Go  forth  now  into  the  woods  and  the  fields,  where 
with  a  strange  stillness  nature  is  passing  through  glory  to 
decay,  and  think  of  the  autumn-seasons  of  this  world,  and 
all  that  pertains  to  it,  from  the  cycles  of  the  ancient  earth 
to  the  perishing  stubble  and 'the  dying  leaf.  „  Think  of 
the  forms  of  beauty,  the  expressions  of  love,  the  symbols 
of  power,  that  have  budded,  and  ripened,  and  gathered  to 
themselves  attractiveness  and  splendor,  and  sunk  away. 
Think  of  the  empires  that  have  overshadowed  the  earth, 
as  the  forests  overshadow  the  hills,  but  whose  brilliance 
and  refinement,  like  the  pomps  of  October,  were  the  sym- 
bols of  a  waning  glory,  and  whose  dead  trunks  and  rot- 
ting foliage  now  lie  scattered  around  the  dim  shores  of 
Time.  Think  of  the  relentless  process  that  has  stopped 
the  sap  of  enterprise,  and  shook  down  the  clustered 
trophies  of  the  great.  Think  of  the  generations  of  the 
earth  gathered  in  like  harvests.  Think  of  the  old  inevi- 


LIVING    WORDS.  331 

lability  pressing  upon  the  tenderest  relationships  of  life, 
—  snatching  here  a  half-opened  flower,  and  plucking 
there  a  ripened  sheaf,  —  until  all  went  back  to  dust,  and 
strangers  occupied  the  forsaken  hearth-stone.  Think  of 
the  individual  man  slipping  from  the  hey-day  of  youth 
into  the  sober  fulness  of  maturity ;  and  then  the  hope,  and 
the  enjoyment,  and  the  intense  hold  of  life,  in  a  rustling, 
crackling  feebleness  all  whirled  away.  See  how  every 
sphere  of  earth  has  its  autumn-seasons ;  but  see,  also,  how 
these  are  merely  transitional  passages  of  decay  leading  to 
renovation.  In  the  place  of  vanished  splendor  rise  fresher 
glories ;  out  from  the  mould  of  empires  grows  a  better 
civilization ;  the  heaped  graves  of  generations  are  the  fur- 
rows of  a  wider,  grander  life;  and  new  affections,  new 
sanctities  come  to  bless  the  earth  and  take  the  place  of 
the  departed. 


THE  largest  love  is  that  which  probes  tho  very  heart  it 
loves,  —  pierces  the  very  depths  of  the  soul  to  which  it  is 
attracted,  and  shows  to  it  the  evil  within  it. 


THERE  are  interests  by  the  sacrifice  of  which  peace  is 
too  dearly  purchased.  One  should  never  be  at  peace  to 
the  shame  of  his  own  soul,  —  to  the  violation  of  his  in- 
tegrity or  of  his  allegiance  to  God. 


332  LIVING    WORDS. 

INTO  what  boundless  life  does  education  admit  us,  and 
the  discoveries  of  every  day,  and  the  ordinary  lessons  of 
the  world !  Tell  me,  is  this  life  to  be  called  merely  a 
brief  and  worthless  fact,  when  by  a  little  reading,  for 
instance,  I  can  make  the  experience  of  other  men,  and 
lands,  and  ages  all  mine?  When  in  some  favored  hour 
I  can  climb  the  starry  galaxy  with  Newton,  and  pace 
along  the  celestial  coast  to  the  great  harmony  of  numbers, 
and  unlock  the  mighty  secret  of  the  universe?  When 
of  a  winter's  night  I  can  pass  through  all  the  belts  of 
climate,  and  all  the  grades  of  civilization  on  our  globe ; 
scan  its  motley  races,  learn  its  diverse  customs,  and  hear 
the  groaning  of  lonely  ice-fields  and  the  sigh  of  Indian 
palms  ?  When  with  Bacon  I  can  explore  the  laboratory 
of  nature,  or  with  Locke  consult  the  mysteries  of  the 
soul  ?  When  Spencer  can  lead  me  into  golden  visions, 
or  Shakspeare  smite  me  with  magic  inspiration,  or  Milton 
bathe  me  in  immortal  song?  When  History  opens  for 
me  all  the  gates  of  the  past,  —  Thebes  and  Palmyra, 
Corinth  and  Carthage,  Athens  with  its  peerless  glory, 
and  Rome  with  its  majestic  pomp?  When  kings  and 
statesmen,  authors  and  priests,  with  their  public  deeds 
and  secret  thoughts,  are  mine  ?  When  the  plans  of  cabi- 
nets, and  the  debates  of  parliaments,  and  the  course  of 
revolutions,  and  the  results  of  battle  are  all  before  my 
eyes,  and  in  my  mind?  When  I  can  enter  the  inner 
chamber  of  sainted  souls,  and  conspire  with  the  efforts  of 


LIVING    WORDS.  333 

moral  heroes,  and  understand  the  sufferings  of  martyrs  ? 
Say,  when  all  these  deep  experiences  —  these  compre- 
hensive truths  —  ma,y  be  acquired  through  merely  one 
privilege,  is  life  but  a  dream,  or  a  breath  of  air?  Thus, 
too,  do  immeasurable  experiences  flow  in  to  me  from 
nature,  —  from  planet,  flower,  and  ocean.  Thus,  too, 
does  more  life  come  to  me  from  contacts  in  the  common 
round  of  action.  And  I  repeat,  every  truth  thus  gained 
expands  a  moment  of  time  into  illimitable  being,  —  posi- 
tively enlarges  my  existence,  and  endows  me  with  a  qual- 
ity which  time  cannot  weaken  or  destroy. 


A  PEEVISH  sensitiveness  to  the  sayings  and  doings  of 
others  indicates  real  poverty  of  soul  or  miserable  timidity, 
or  else  a  spirit  which  is  mastered  by  the  body,  and  lies  at 
the  mercy  of  diseased  and  jangling  nerves. 


MEN  sometimes,  in  their  eagerness  to  act,  act  too  far, 
—  act  by  wrong  motives ;  and  in  their  impatient  fussi- 
ness  overlook  the  processes  of  God,  and  the  harmonious 
working  of  all  things.  It  is  a  great  thing,  very  often,  to 
be  patient ;  —  not  to  talk  much  about  it,  not  to  try  to  do 
much  about  it,  but  to  wait  and  trust.  And  this  is  all, 
sometimes,  that  we  can  do. 


334  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  evening  of  the  day  possesses  many  advantages  for 
meditation.  The  objects  that  are  upon  the  earth  are  then 
growing  dim  and  passing  into  shadow;  and  with  them 
may  well  fall  away  all  our  secular  images.  The  most 
familiar  things  assume  strange  aspects,  and  the  darkness 
slowly  swallows  them  up.  How  suggestive  this  of  the 
unsubstantiality  of  those  forms  to  which  we  cling,  of  the 
superficial  acquaintanceship  there  is  between  us,  of  the  iso- 
lation in  which  as  spirits  we  really  stand,  and  of  the  mys- 
tery all  around  and  within  us !  And  how  vividly  then 
can  we  realize  that  there  is  but  One  in  whom  we  live,  and 
move,  and  have  our  being !  In  the  mean  time  the  veil  of 
day  is  "withdrawn  from  the  firmament,  and  innumerable 
•worlds  break  upon  our  vision.  How  does  this  revelation  of 
immensity  increase  our  conception  of  him  who  bounds  and 
fills  it  all,  —  who  has  sown  abroad  those  worlds  of  light, 
and  shown  forth  his  handiwork  in  those  glittering  constel- 
lations !  The  objects  which  we  see  by  day,  to  be  sure  — 
the  varied  forms  of  earth  —  declare  him :  the  mountain, 
the  ocean,  the  way-side  weed.  But  with  these  we  are 
more  familiar.  They  do  not  illustrate  his  attributes,  and 
shadow  forth  the  majesty  of  his  being  so  strikingly  as 
this  spectacle  of  the  heavens.  In  that  sublime  architect- 
ure we  can  best  discern  his  infinite  wisdom  and  his  di- 
vine skill.  From  that  vast  space,  all  peopled  with  being 
and  blessed  with  light,  we  may  guess  how  inexhaustible 
is  his  benevolence  and  how  extensive  his  care.  In  those 


LIVING    WORDS.  335 

serene  depths,  those  steady  orbs,  we  have  a  symbol  of  his 
own  calm  eternity  overhanging  all  our  transient  forms. 
In  that  procession  of  stars,  that  seeming  irregularity  of 
orbits,  reconciled,  however,  by  a  higher  law,  and  produc- 
ing most  beautiful  results,  we  seer  as  it  were,  the  stupen- 
dous march  of  his  providence,  and  the  sure  though 
immense  cycle  of  his  purposes.  And  considering  these 
glories  as  but  the  lamps  of  his  throne,  the  upholstery  of 
his  pavilion,  the  material  veils  of  his  pure  essence,  how 
awful  must  be  our  sense  of  his  holiness,  how  deep  our 
feeling  of  humility,  upon  this  little  earthly  atom  of  mor- 
tality and  sin !  But  if,  lost  in  this  unfathomable  vision, 
we  think  he  is  far  from  us,  and  heeds  us  not,  the  reflec- 
tion of  that  ray  of  light  from  its  far  distant  source  into 
our  uplifted  eyes,  the  soft  touch  of  the  night-wind  com- 
ing we  know  not  whence,  should  convince  us  that  he  is 
closer  to  us  than  any  outward  thing,  and  numbers  all  the 
hairs  of  our  head. 


THE  shadow  of  the  night  also  strikes  a  shadow  upon, 
the  dial  of  our  life,  and  every  evening  falls  upon  the 
figure  of  a  later  hour.  As  the  wise  merchant,  then, 
posts  his  books  at  night,  and  knows  the  state  of  his  for- 
tune, so  will  the  wise  man  at  the  close  of  the  day  sum 
up  the  account  of  life,  and  scrutinize  his  doings  and 
relations. 


336  LIVING    WORDS. 

As  to  the  spiritual  life  of  man,  —  the  real,  substantial 
life  which  man  is  placed  in  this  world  to  live,  —  I  sup- 
pose that  Abraham  on  the  plains  of  Mamre,  and  the  old 
patriarchs  who  had  no  steamboats,  and  railroads,  and  bal- 
loons, nor  any  of  our  modern  facilities  which  we  glorify 
in  such  sparkling  terms,  got  really  as  near  to  God,  in 
the  heart  and  essence  of  true  life,  as  we  do,  and  as  men 
ever  will  in  any  age. 


IT  would  be  very  singular  if  this  great  elastic  shad-net 
of  the  law  did  not  enable  men  to  catch  at  something  balk- 
ing for  the  time  the  eternal  flood-tide  of  justice. 


THE  brightest  lineaments  of  woman's  character  ap- 
pear as  the  shadows  of  life  grow  darker.  In  hours  of 
sickness,  in  homes  of  pain,  in  weary  vigils  she  rises  with  a 
sublime  fortitude.  The  spirit  that  shrinks  with  sensitive- 
ness in  calmer  moments  gives  out  rich  music  in  the  storm. 
When  impending  danger,  pitiless  calumny,  or  cruel  perse- 
cution assails  the  object  of  her  affection,  she  gathers  her 
virtue  around  her  for  a  shield,  and  with  a  power  that 
makes  the  weak  things  of  the  earth  stronger  than  the 
mighty,  and  lends  to  the  timid  a  bravery  that  defies  all 
peril,  she  goes  forth  to  share  his  fortune  to  the  last,  ex- 
hibiting a  constancy  that  is  more  eloquent  than  words, 
and  a  love  that  cannot  die. 


LIVING    WORDS.  337 

ALAS  for  that  man  who  keeps  always  in  the  bustle  of 
life,  —  who  knows  nothing  of  his  own  soul,  and  never 
stops  to  reflect  upon  the  highest  realities  !  Alas  for  him, 
also,  in  this  world  of  infinite  relations,  who  never  looks 
upward,  but  confines  his  gaze  to  the  earth ;  who,  placed 
amid  solemn  mysteries,  never  questions  about  life,  or 
death,  or  God,  or  eternity,  but  suffers  the  sheen  of  ma- 
terial interests  to  obscure  the  stars,  and  drowns  the  still, 
small  voice  of  Heaven  with  the  jingling  of  his  harness  and 
the  clank  of  his  labor !  Alas  for  him  who,  launched  upon 
this  sea  of  life,  lies  becalmed  upon  its  waters — easy,  self- 
content  —  or  drifts  unreckoning  before  the  wind,  but  who 
never  changes  his  tack  or  adjusts  his  methods,  because  he 
takes  no  celestial  observation,  and  knows  not  the  science 
of  his  voyage ! 


WE  only  attain  the  true  idea  of  marriage  when  we 
consider  it  as  a  spiritual  union,  —  a  union  of  immortal 
affections,  of  undying  faculties,  of  an  imperishable  des- 
tiny. 


IT  is  one  of  the  grand  results  of  modern  science  that 
it  not  only  reveals  its  own  harmony  with  religion,  but  it 
also  demonstrates  the  essential  religiousness  of  the  physi- 
cal world.  It  shows  us  that  every  work  which  God  has 
made  is  holy,  and  not  to  be  despised. 
29 


338  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  evening  of  life  is  peculiarly  appropriate  for  medi- 
tation. There  are  those  who  are  spared  to  an  age  that  ia 
well  expressed  by  this  term.  A  shadow  is  upon  their 
eyesight  and  upon  their  memory.  A  shadow  is  lengthen- 
ing before  them,  —  the  shadow  of  fast-coming  death. 
The  order  of  their  thoughts  indicates  an  evening  position. 
The  nearest  things  are  but  dimly  seen  and  quickly  van- 
ish, while  they  behold  in  clear  prominence  their  earliest 
and  remotest  years;  like  the  departing  sunshine,  which 
shows  last  what  it  saluted  first,  and  lingers  upon  the  dis- 
tant summit  while  the  near  valley  lies  in  darkness.  Old 
age  is  an  evening.  The  day-time  of  life  is  passed,  —  the 
hours  of  labor  are  over.  And  how  beautiful  that  evening 
is  when  clothed  with  the  serenity  of  virtue  !  To  be  sure, 
melancholy  thoughts  will  naturally  steal  in,  as  they  do  in 
the  evening  of  the  day.  When  the  old  man  reviews  his 
conduct  in  the  mellow  light  of  experience  he  detects  many 
an  imperfection  which  he  would  now  avoid.  He  mourns 
over  many  a  downfall  of  which  he  thought  too  lightly  in 
the  hot  pursuit  of  life.  He  wonders  at  the  presumption 
with  which  he  was  once  cheated  in  the  name,  of  knowledge 
and  bravery.  In  this  rectifying  hour,  too,  he  discovers 
how  his  energies  have  been  too  much  invigorated  by  self- 
ishness, too  little  animated  by  love.  Indeed  none  so 
clearly  as  he  discerns  how  short  a  time  we  have  to  love 
in,  as  well  as  to  hope  and  to  labor.  How  swiftly,  like 
shadows,  in  that  evening  hour,  pass  before  his  vision  the 


LIVING    WORDS.  339 

friends  of  his  youth  !  How  vividly,  though  all  else  has 
grown  dim,  do  those  familiar  faces  gaze  upon  him  !  How 
distinctly  stand  up  those  gray  and  silent  stones  that  mark 
the  spots  in  his  journey  where  they  dropped  and  died ! 
How  impressively,  in  that  evening  hour,  with  its  last 
murmurs  falling  upon  his  ear,  does  life  appear  like  a  tale 
that  is  told  !  And  yet  to  that  old  man  the  evening  of  life 
brings  the  evening's  consolations  —  rest  and  hope;  rest 
from  the  toils  of  this  world's  to-day,  hope  from  the  re- 
sources of  the  everlasting  to-morrow.  The  most  of  his 
friends  have  fallen  asleep  around  him,  and  he  is  willing 
to  lie  down  with  them.  And  though  the  things  of  earth 
are  vanishing  from  him,  and  the  noise  of  the  world  breaks 
solemnly  at  his  feet,  as  at  evening  breaks  the  murmur  of 
the  gray  and  retreating  sea,  lo !  above  him  "is  outspread 
a  celestial  canopy ;  and  all  that  was  best  in  his  lot,  wor- 
thiest his  love  and  his  faith,  is  gathered  up  there  in  im- 
mortal constellations. 


THE  cry  of  degeneracy  is  the  oldest  of  cries.  Take  up 
any  London  journal  of  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  you  will 
find  remonstrances  and  satires  against  the  same  follies  and 
vices  as  those  which  are  denounced  to-day.  Therefore 
these  parallel  cases  in  our  time  show  us,  not  that  we  are 
going  into  the  swamp,  but  that  we  have  not  yet  got  out 
of  it. 


340  LIVING    WORDS. 

\ 

WHY  is  there  such  an  abundance  of  beauty  ?  We  can 
conceive  of  a  world  destitute  of  it.  We  can  argue  no 
special  need  why  the  leaves  before  they  die  should  take 
the  hues  of  the  rainbow.  They  might  shrink  at  once  into 
their  yellow  shrouds  and  fall.  '  We  find  no  reason,  in  the 
necessity  of  things,  why  our  atmosphere  should  be  thronged 
with  such  gorgeous  tints  as  those  which  gather  at  the 
gates  of  sunset.  In  all  this  there  is  nothing  which  we 
can  convert  into  food,  or  clothing,  or  money.  And  yet 
something  in  us  responds  to  it.  We  will  rear  flowers 
because  they  are  beautiful,  and  gaze  long  upon  a  land- 
scape because  it  thrills  us  with  delight.  Doubtless, 
then,  God  has  a  purpose,  through  these,  to  awaken  in 
us  pleasures  that  the  dust  and  drudgery  of  life  cannot 
yield,  and  to  train  us  for  regions  where  we  shall  never 
grow  weary  nor  bow  down  to  mourn ;  —  where  there  are 
treasures  of  joy  not  involved  with  earthly  vicissitude, 
and  manifestations  of  beauty  which  the  soul  can  ap- 
prehend only  when  it  has  thrown  off  its  mortal  veils. 
And  so,  even  now,  the  misanthrope's  philosophy  and  the 
fanatic's  creed  are  rebuked.  The  world  is  not  dreary. 
There  are  bars  of  sunlight  upon  it;  there  are  revela- 
tions of  beauty  in  it ;  and  through  changeful  phases 
and  alternating  seasons  runs  the  Creator's  purpose, 
by  these  agencies,  to  win  us  to  know  and  to  love  him 
better. 


LIVING    WORDS.  341 

CHRISTIANITY  converses  with  the  third  heaven,  and 
opens  the  great  prospect  of  the  immortal  world,  but  makes 
earth  the  platform  of  its  teachings,  the  theatre  of  ita 
efforts. 


FEELING  after  God,  if  haply  they  may  find  him.  That 
is  what  all  nations  have  been  doing  long  before  Christ, 
and  what  all  nations  in  darkness  and  unbelief  are  forever 
doing.  Every  prayer  put  up,  however  blindly  uttered, 
however  superstitiously  conceived,  is  a  feeling  after  God ; 
and  every  breath  of  altar-flame  and  every  sacrifice  has 
been  a  feeling  after  God  and  for  him.  Out  of  this  pri- 
mary conviction  of  God  in  our  nature  all  the  religions  of 
the  world  have  started ;  and  therefore  we  realize,  even  in 
heathenism,  this  primary  conviction  of  the  reality  of  the 
truth  of  one  God,  and  thus  get  rid  of  an  atheism  which  is 
not  natural  to  man. 


THERE  is  no  happiness  in  life,  there  is  no  misery,  like 
that  growing  out  of  the  dispositions  which  consecrate  or 
desecrate  a  home. 


THE  sluices  of  the  grog-shop  are  fed  from  the  wine- 
glasses in  ftie  parlor ;  and  there  is  a  lineal  descent  from  the 
gentleman  who  hiccoughs  at  his  elegant  dinner-table  to 

the  sot  who  makes  a  bed  of  the  gutter. 

28* 


342  LIVING    WORDS. 

Two  gifts  God  has  bestowed  on  us  that  have  in  them- 
selves no  guilty  trait,  and  show  an  essential  divineness. 
Music  is  one  of  them,  which  seems  as  though  it  were  never 
born  of  earth,  but  lingers  with  us  from  the  gates  of  heaven. 
Music  which  breathes  over  the  gross,  or  sad,  or  doubting 
heart,  to  inspire  it  with  a  consciousness  of  its  most  mys- 
terious affinities,  and  to  touch  the  chords  of  its  unde- 
veloped, unsuspected  life.  And  the  other  gift  is  that  of 
flowers,  which,  though  born  of  earth,  we  may  well  believe 
—  if  anything  of  earthly  soil  grows  in  that  higher  realm, 
if  any  of  its  methods  are  continued,  if  any  of  its  forms  are 
identical  there  —  will  live  on  the  banks  of  the  River  of 
Life.  Flowers,  that  in  all  our  gladness,  in  all  our  sorrow, 
are  never  incongruous  —  always  appropriate.  Appropri- 
ate in  the  church,  as  expressive  of  its  purest  and  most 
social  themes,  and  blending  their  sweetness  with  the  in- 
cence  of  prayer.  Appropriate  in  the  joy  of  the  marriage 
hour,  in  the  loneliness  of  the  sick-room,  and  crowning  with 
prophecy  the  foreheads  of  the  dead.  They  give  complete- 
ness to  the  associations  of  childhood,  and  are  appropriate 
even  by  the  side  of  old  age,  strange  as  their  freshness  con- 
trasts with  the  wrinkles  and  the  gray  hairs ;  for  still  they 
are  suggestive,  they  are  symbolical  of  the  soul's  perpetual 
youth,  —  the  inward  blossoming  of  immortality,  —  the 
amaranthine  crown.  In  their  presence  we  feel  that  when 
the  body  shall  drop  as  a  withered  calyx  the  soul  shall  go 
forth  as  a  winged  seed. 


LIVING    WORDS.  343 

HOME  is  the  seminary  of  all  other  institutions.  There 
are  the  roots  of  all  public  prosperity,  the  foundations  of 
the  State,  the  germs  of  the  church.  There  is  all  that  in 
the  child  makes  the  future  man;  all  that  in  the  man 
makes  the  good  citizen. 


WE  see  the  western  sky,  when  the  sun  is  up,  sending 
up  its  clear  reflections,  and  every  building  and  steeple 
stands  out  clearly  and  distinct.  And  so  the  sky  and  the 
horizon  of  the  nineteenth  century  has  a  clear  reflection  of 
intellectual  light  thrown  upon  it,  and  every  ghastly  wrong, 
every  forbidden  error,  every  formidable  evil  stands  right 
up  against  it.  Because  we  see  more  clearly  now  we  say 
there  is  more  wrong.  But  that  is  a  very  doubtful,  if  not 
a  very  erroneous  conclusion.  The  conclusion  should  ratter 
be  that  the  very  intellectual  progress  and  the  diffused 
knowledge  of  which  we  speak  have  made  the  evil  more 
apparent ;  and  that  is  one  step  toward  subduing  and  over- 
coming evil. 


LIKE  Peter  on  the  wave,  we  walk  along  in  life  very 
well  so  long  as  we  look  to  God,  or  to  Christ,  the  image 
of  God ;  but  the  moment  we  begin  to  think  of  ourselves — 
of  our  perils,  and  dangers,  and  sacrifices  —  that  moment 
we  begin  to  sink. 


344  LIVING    WORDS. 

ETHNOLOGIES  may  break  up  mankind  into  a  dozen 
tribes,  each  with  distinct  progenitors;  and  though  the 
earth  be  striped  all  over  with  diversities  of  color,  shape, 
capacity,  condition,  the  conviction  only  deepens,  till  it  be- 
comes the  tritest  of  doctrines,  that  this  wide  banyan-tree 
of  ranks  and  races  has  one  deep  root,  one  central  stream 
of  life,  one  human  heart.  In  this  fact  we  feel  more  and 
more  the  claim  of  every  man,  —  in  the  fact  that  he  pos- 
sesses this  capable  and  mysterious  heart.  We  ask  for  no 
other  sign.  We  care  not  what  limitation  of  intellect, 
what  degradation  of  morals  may  be  found,  what  analo- 
gies may  be  detected  between  something  lower  than  man 
and  he.  Here  is  the  only  question  we  ask:  Does  he 
love,  and  fear,  and  hope,  and  pray  with  the  common 
ground-swell  of  humanity?  Show  us  the  poor  Indian 
woman  who  lays  down  her  child  in  the  woods,  and  folds 
the  little  palms  together,  —  kisses  the  dumb  lips  that 
will  never  prattle  more.  Show  us  the  slave  mother, 
hounded,  fang-torn,  with  revolvers  cracking  behind  her, 
and  the  rolling  flood  before,  holding  in  her  lacerated 
hands  her  babe  close  to  her  breast,  with  a  grasp  that  only 
death  can  loosen ;  —  and  in  this  spectecle  there  is  that 
which  climbs  over  all  castes  and  bulwarks,  enters  radiant 
and  perfumed  homes,  transmutes  all  distinctions,  and 
strikes  straight  into  humanity,  with  that  "one  touch 
which  makes  the  whole  world  kin." 


LIVING     WORDS.  345 

I  THINK  you  may  doubt  the  authority  of  any  creed,  of 
any  faith,  which  requires  you  to  be  a  philosopher  before 
you  can  understand  it ;  —  any  creed  which  is  so  meta- 
physical that  the  common  mind  cannot  receive  it.  That 
is  the  great  objection  to  Calvinism.  Before  you  can  com- 
prehend the  scheme  of  salvation  of  that  church  you  must 
become  a  man  of  considerable  intellect.  But  the  central 
truth  of  God  the  Father  —  a  child  can  take  it  in.  Some- 
times when  I  stand  by  the  dying  bed,  the  ear  is  growing 
deaf  from  the  booming  waves  of  eternity,  so  that  but  a  few 
words  here  and  there  can  reach  it ;  but  I  can  shove  out 
one  plank  to  the  dying  man,  —  "  One  God,  the  Father ;" 
and  with  that  he  can  take  the  sweep  of  the  sea  of  eternity. 
It  is  a  great  truth  to  be  embosomed  in  the  heart  of  man. 
Some  men  believe  this  for  themselves.  That  is  not  the 
Christian  doctrine.  You  must  go  further  than  that.  It 
is  one  God,  the  Father  of  all.  When  you  pray,  "Our 
Father,"  remember  it  does  not  mean  your  Father  espe- 
cially, but  our  Father,  the  Father  of  all  humanity. 


THERE  is  a  necessity  for  setting  apart  one  day  in  seven 
for  religious  thought,  meditation,  and  religious  action 
generally,  in  order  that  we  may  have  a  reservoir,  so  to 
speak,  by  which  to  water  and  sprinkle  the  other  six  days 
in  the  week. 


346  LIVING    WORDS. 

No,  not  less  knowledge,  but  more  knowledge,  to  expose 
the  evil,  to  condemn  the  shame  and  abominations  of  the 
time.  More  knowledge,  mated  in  its  essence  with  God's 
everlasting  love,  exalting  in  its  revealing  splendors  the 
immutable  law,  until  men  shall  learn  the  fatal  incompati- 
bility of  sin  with  any  good,  until  the  golden  scales  shall 
be  shivered  from  their  eyes,  until  their  hands  shall  be  un- 
manacled  from  all  mean  policy,  and  to  know  and  to  do 
shall  be  as  the  arterial  unity  of  brain-throb  and  heart- 
beat. Silent  is  the  force  which  controls  the  material 
world,  sure  and  relentless  as  its  burning  wheels.  And  so 
flow  on,  flow  wide,  unfolding  truth  and  knowledge  of  the 
times !  Shine,  genial  as  the  sunlight,  terrible  as  the 
lightning,  until  wrong  shall  shrivel,  and  selfishness  be  put 
to  open  shame  !  Shine  into  the  crannies  of  this  strange 
old  world,  —  into  its  mould,  and  rust,  and  rot !  Shine, 
until  indifierence  grows  warm,  and  prejudices  burn  away, 
and  for  our  pity  and  indignation  we  shall  see  all  fetters 
and  tear-stains,  and  sorrows !  Shine  straight  through 
our  brother's  rags,  our  brother's  uncouthness,  our  broth- 
er's nationality,  until  we  discern  the  same  natures,  the 
same  heart,  the  same  red  blood  as  our  own !  Shine, 
bright  and  beautiful,  in  toleration  and  comprehensiveness, 
giving  hope  to  the  future  and  significance  to  the  past,  like 
the  sunlight,  which,  streaming  through  cathedral  win- 
dows, kindles  up  the  features  of  heroes  and  martyrs, 
and  reflects  their  expression  upon  the  living  crowds  be- 


LIVING     WORDS.  347 

low !  Warmly  shine,  until  liberty  shall  grow  as  every 
man's  vine  and  fig-tree,  and  the  tendrils  of  sympathy, 
running  by  every  creek,  and  carried  by  every  ship,  shall 
be  rolled  around  the  globe  !  And  then  if,  with  all  this, 
man  proves  worse,  we  shall  be  sure  that  knowledge  will 
not  make  him  so,  but  show  him  so. 


You  would  feel  that  it  was  a  great  thing  to  stand  upon 
the  walls  of  a  lonely  fort,  with  your  country's  flag  floating 
over  you,  knowing,  perhaps,  that  your  country's  freedom 
depended  upon  your  vigilant  eye  and  quick  ear.  You 
would  think  it  a  great  thing  to  stand  upon  the  deck  of  a 
ship,  keeping  watch  at  night,  knowing  that  the  safety  of 
all  those  on  board  depended  upon  your  alertness  and  ac- 
tivity. Stand  at  the  portals  of  your  own  soul,  with  the 
signal-flag  of  God's  law  floating  over  you,  and  feel  what 
important  results  depend  upon  your  care  and  watchful- 
ness ;  stand  upon  the  deck  of  the  great  social  ship,  watch- 
ing the  interests  committed  to  you,  and  feel  how  much 
depends  upon  you.  Drive  every  nail  you  drive,  do  every- 
thing you  do,  however  small  and  insignificant,  as  though 
God's  eye  was  flashing  upon  you. 


No  great  truth  bursts  upon  man  without  having  its 
hemisphere  of  darkness  and  sorrow. 


348  LIVING     WORDS. 

WE  hear  people  talk  of  correct  notions  of  Christianity. 
What  do  their  notions  amount  to  ?  What  is  their  Chris- 
tianity, with  those  notions  they  hold  ?  It  is  like  an  imi- 
tation of  fruit  that  we  see  carved  in  stone  :  it  is  an  exact 
imitation  to  the  eye,  but  it  is  impossible  to  bite  it,  and  it 
is  without  juice.  It  is  made  to  look  at,  —  to  arrange  in 
a  cabinet,  —  to  set  on  a  mantlepiece ;  but  beyond  that,  of 
no  manner  of  use.  And  how  many  believers  there  are 
who  are  only  stony  fruit,  —  imitations  of  Christianity, 
without  any  juice  in  them.  They  have  very  correct 
notions  of  Christianity :  they  are  very  sound,  — just  as 
sound  as  a  stone  apple  or  peach, — and  just  as  hard. 
They  set  their  stern,  flinty  faces  against  lax  sentiment, 
and  all  those  infidel  notions  that  they  tell  us  are  rife  and 
prevalent  at  the  present  time.  You  find  no  class  of  men 
so  rampant  against  what  they  call  heresy  as  this  class  of 
stony,  hard  believers,  whose  whole  power  of  Christianity 
consists  in  correct  notions.  Every  man  who  does  not 
come  up  to  the  line  of  their  creed  is  an  infidel.  The 
name  has  almost  become  honorable  in  this  way;  for  a 
great  many  who  are  called  infidels  are  simply  men  who 
are  searching  for  the  spirit  and  truth  of  religion,  and 
they  believe  in  Christ  as  that  spirit  and  truth ;  and  if  you 
can  make  the  essence  of  Christianity  consist  in  spirit  and 
truth,  rather  than  in  fact,  they  are  nearer  to  Christ  than 
a  great  many  of  those  who  hurl  anathemas  against  them. 


LIVING     WORDS.  349 

THE  philosopher  can  never  convince  us  that  our  little 
earth  is  the  only  home  of  affection  and  intelligence  like 
our  own,  and  that  the  systems  which  burn  and  roll  around 
us  are  only  sparkling  Saharas  of  incompleteness  and  deso- 
lation. No  more  can  the  historical  sceptic  make  us  be- 
lieve that  the  largest  measure  of  knowledge  is  unfavorable 
to  the  noblest  types  of  excellence,  —  that  the  richest  vir- 
tues wilt  in  the  brightest  civilization.  Argue  as  we  will, 
our  moral  instincts,  our  faith  in  Providence  assure  us  that 
knowledge  tends  to  goodness.  They  are  not  identical, 
yet  in  their  highest  realization  they  are  inseparable. 


CHRISTIANITY  is  a  spirit  flowing  through  every  chan- 
nel of  action,  —  consecrating  all  we  do,  —  making  every 
day  holy  and  every  spot  sacred. 


THERE  are  mysteries  which,  if  they  are  not  solved  by 
the  truths  of  Christianity,  darken  the  universe.  There 
are  griefs  which,  if  we  do  not  receive  them  as  divine 
chastisements,  are  too  much  for  our  humanity.  There 
are  ties  sundered  here  below  which,  if  we  do  not  hold 
immortal  relations,  are  inexplipable.  And  nothing  but 
the  power  of  religion  enables  us  to  use  our  afflictions  as 
the  instruments  of  our  spiritual  advancement,  —  to  con- 
vert the  crown  of  thorns  into  a  diadem  of  victory. 
30 


350  LIVING     WORDS. 

IT  is  a  very  singular  fallacy,  it  seems  to  me,  that  takes 
the  present  condition  of  the  world  as  the  rectification  of  a 
mistake  on  the  part  of  God,  instead  of  being  a  develop- 
ment of  his  steadfast  intention  from  the  very  first  until 
now. 


WE  live  in  an  order  of  circumstances  where  not  an 

* 

atom  is  insignificant.  A  pebble  shakes  the  huge  fabric 
of  the  universe.  A  leaf  shudders  in  sympathy  with  the 
remotest  constellations.  If  we  act  we  touch  the  spring 
of  an  endless  consequence ;  if  we  refuse  to  do  anything 
our  negation  circulates  itself.  If  we  move  we  quicken 
the  pulses  of  the  common  being;  if  we  stand  still  we 
poison  the  air  or  enrich  the  soil. 


THE  worst  manifestation  of  a  bad  spirit  is  joy  in  the 
fall  of  another,  — joy  when  sin  prevails,  — joy  when  a 
brother  trips  and  stumbles  into  ruin. 


THE  material  and  the  spiritual  are  not  in  the  here  and 
the  hereafter,  but  in  the  senses  and  the  soul.  When 
Christ  made  the  distinction  between  the  temporal  and 
the  eternal  it  was  not  between  what  is  now  and  to  be 
hereafter,  but  the  distinction  of  quality. 


LIVING    WORDS.  351 

THERE  is  an  upward  joy  that  blessed  spirits  feel  when 
another  spirit  becomes  blessed.  It  is  the  joy  of  redeemed 
souls  when  others  have  become  redeemed.  It  is  the  joy 
of  those  who  have  fought  the  good  fight  and  achieved  tho 
victory  when  others  come  drenched,  as  it  may  be,  with 
the  blood  of  their  wounds,  but  saved  and  delivered.  It  is 
a  joy  that  flows  from  earth  to  heaven.  As  there  ia  light 
in  the  morning  that  goes  shimmering  up  the  clear  upper 
sky,  so  there  is  a  light  that  goes  shimmering  up  to  the 
white  robes  of  the  blessed,  making  their  crowns  brighter, 
when  the  faces  of  the  penitent  are  upturned  in  prayer. 
As  when  the  breath  of  the  summer  air  begins  to  stir  the 
leaves  of  the  forest  they  all  shiver  and  lift  themselves 
with  rejoicing,  so  when  the  soul  of  the  penitent  begins  to 
move,  —  when  the  guilty  heart  turns  from  sin  to  Christ, 
—  there  goes  forth  a  breath,  an  impulse,  higher  and 
higher,  deeper  and  deeper,  stronger  and  stronger,  until  it 
becomes  a  sweet  hallelujah  sweeping  all  round  the  courts 
of  heaven. 


Do  not  make  personal  beauty  a  boast  or  an  idol. 
Do  not  set  your  heart  upon  it.  Would  you  treasure 
up  all  your  regards  in  a  flower  ?  That  frail  plant !  — 
the  next  rude  hand  may  snap  it,  to-morrow's  burning  ray 
may  scorch  it,  the  first  frost  may  blight  it,  and  leave  you 
desolate. 


352  LIVING    WORDS. 

THERE  is  one  Volume  which  is  greater  than  all  other 
books ;  which  contains  precepts  that  are  to  knowlege  thi 
base  of  the  pyramid,  the  flame  of  the  altar ;  a  Volume 
that  is  the  sun  in  the  system  of  truth,  around  which  glide 
all  the  bright  and  beautiful  orbs  of  human  wisdom ;  while 
those  that  stray  from  its  light  wander  darkly  abroad,  or 
glimmer  and  fade  in  the  distance. 


No  one  can  rank  so  high  in  the  scale  of  mental  excel- 
lence that  it  will  be  a  letting  down  of  his  dignity  to  guido 
and  inform  any  of  his  fellow-creatures. 


IF  Napoleon  —  pointing  to  the  tall  and  mystic  pyra- 
mids—  could  say  to  his  army,  "Lo!  fifty  centuries  look 
down  upon  your  deeds," — young  men  of  America,  of 
you  it  may  be  said  that  fifty  unborn  generations  abide  the 
issue  of  your  works. 


"  OUR  life  is  what  we  make  it!" — an  insignificant 
game  or  a  noble  trial ;  a  dream  or  a  reality ;  a  play  of 
the  senses  worn  out  in  selfish  use,  and  flying  "swifter 
than  a  weaver's  shuttle,"  or  an  assension  of  the  soul,  by 
daily  duties  and  unfaltering  faith,  to  more  spiritual  rela- 
tions and  to  loftier  toils,  —  to  the  company  of  the  immor- 
tal, — to  the  presence  of  God  and  the  fellowship  of  Christ. 


LIVING    WORDS.  353 

THE  Psalms  of  David  are  the  thought  of  to-day  and 
forever.  They  are  the  hymns,  the  prayers,  the  confes- 
sions, the  sublime  meditations  of  men  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  right  here  in  the  city  of  New  York,  as  of 
the  men  in  Judea  three  thousand  years  ago. 


THE  true  idea  of  Christianity  is  help  from  God,  freely 
given ;  the  sympathy  of  God,  flowing  out  even  unto  the 
death  on  the  cross,  —  trickling  in  the  blood-drops  from 
the  thorn-torn  brow  and  the  pierced  side  of  Jesus  Christ. 


0  CHRISTIAN  !  the  great  revealing  of  life  does  not 
make  life  meaner,  but  grander,  It  does  not  make  your 
work,  your  familiar  home  duties,  of  little  consideration, 
but  of  great  consideration.  That  is  its  beauty.  It  is  like 
our  modern  astronomy,  which,  while  it  reveals  the  little- 
ness of  the  earth,  reveals  its  grand  connections,  and  showa 
it  linked  together  in  a  grand  chain  of  being. 


THERE  is  a  sweet  anguish  springing  up  in  our  bosoms 
when  a  child's  face  brightens  under  the  shadow  of  the 
waiting  angel.  There  is  an  autumnal  fitness  when  age 
gives  up  the  ghost ;  and  when  the  saint  dies  there  is  a 
tearful  victory. 

30* 


354  LIVING    WORDS. 

NOT  only  is  music  a  beautiful  and  sublime  science,  the 
study  of  which  ennobles  and  purifies  the  mind  of  its  votary, 
but  how  many  and  excellent  are  its  ministries  to  others ! 
It  occupies  hours  that  else,  perhaps,  they  would  employ 
sinfully.  It  wins  them  from  low  and  sensual  pursuits. 
It  fills  the  home  with  melody,  and  helps  recreation  and 
social  intercourse.  It  breaks  into  the  monotony  of  life 
with  a  kindling  enthusiasm,  and  interrupts  the  weary 
periods  of  anxiety  and  toil.  It  soothes  the  dull  pauses  of 
disease;  it  twines  its  magic  spell  around  the  fevered  heart; 
it  steals  into  the  troubled  spirit  with  uplifting  and  with 
peace.  Its  harmonies  drop  through  the  gloom  of  confine- 
ment like  links  of  sunshine,  and  draw  us  up  to  the  canopy 
of  the  free  and  unbounded  heaven.  It  is  the  key  of  mem- 
ory and  the  messenger  of  hope,  awaking  us  to  all  that  is 
dear  in  the  past,  and  all  that  is  worthy  in  the  future. 
For  in  its  sweetest  and  loftiest  moods  music  is  eminently 
a  moral  and  religious  agent.  It  touches  our  best  feelings, 
rebukes  o\tf  sins,  and  confirms  our  virtues.  It  is  the 
natural  advocate  of  freedom,  peace,  and  every  sacred  work. 
It  is  the  best  expression  of  faith  and  prayer.  It  moves 
like  a  magnetic  current  over  our  souls,  and  suggests  our 
mysterious  kindred  with  higher  realities. 


THE  worst  kind  of  Christian  literature  is  the  morbid 
analysis  of  Christian  consciousness. 


LIVING    WORDS. 


A  BREATH  upon  the  mirror,  a  stone  in  the  brook,  and 
the  fair  and  seemly  appearance  that  made  them  comely  in 
the  eyes  of  men  is  destroyed ;  nay,  there  is  not  a  star  that 
•walks  in  heaven  but  the  least  particle  of  cloud  shall  ren- 
der it  rayless  and  hide  its  beauty.  Breathe  not  even  an 
idle  word,  then,  much  less  a  contrived  aspersion,  against 
that  which  to  all  honorable  men  is  dearer  than  gems  or 
gold. 

GOD  is  the  explanation  of  things,  and  nothing  but  God, 
—  the  infinite  God,  the  good  God,  the  God  and  Father 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


THE  fire-brand  which  you  unthinkingly  wield  may 
burn  but  a  single  stubble,  but  it  is  capable  of  enwrapping 
a  city  in  flames.  Therefore  meddle  with  it  not  at  all. 
So  it  is  in  regard  to  the  principle  that  leads  you  from  the 
strict  path  of  integrity. 


THE  moment  a  man  says,  "  I  will  not  believe  so  and 
so,  for  I  must  go  with  the  majority,"  then  he  would  be, 
not  a  Presbyterian  or  a  Roman  Catholic,  but  a  Buddhist ; 
for  I  believe  they  have  a  majority  among  the  religious 
believers  in  the  world ;  and  in  the  track  of  the  majority  he 
will  go  to  any  extreme,  and  believe  in  any  error. 


356  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  truth  of  Christianity  a  man  can  carry  in  the  palm 
of  his  hand,  or  close  to  his  heart ;  and  yet  it  spreads  out 
broad  enough  to  cover  all  the  necessities  of  this  life,  and 
opens  a  prospect  wide  as  eternity. 


MOST  men  are  less  afraid  of  ghosts  than  of  facts ;  but 
out  of  the  truth  of  things  — -  truth  of  character  and  vision 
—  grows  true  life.  We  need  not  deplore  the  naturalistic 
spirit  of  our  time.  The  development  of  the  great  natural 
agents  gives  the  good  man  more  to  do.  The  fires  of 
steam-ships  that  rise  and  dip  far  out  on  lonely  seas  herald 
a  new  era  of  faith  and  love.  Increased  knowledge  is  a 
conduit  of  fuller  life. 


CHRIST  stands  close  to  all  the  hearts  of  poor,  suffering, 
bleeding,  tempted,  dying  humanity.  Put  no  church,  no 
creed,  no  symbol,  between  any  man  and  Christ  Jesus. 
He  alone,  filled  with  human  experience,  can  fill  all  souls 
with  his  divine  love. 


PEACEFULLY  and  silently  roll  the  chariot-wheels  of 
salvation,  and  by  the  beat  of  every  consecrated  pulse,  by 
the  breath  of  every  noble  voice,  by  the  strength  of  every 
brave,  honest,  heroic  effort,  the  kingdom  of  God  is  ad- 
vanced. 


LIVING    WORDS.  357 

THE  popular  sympathies  are  very  apt  to  strike  at  the 
core  of  truth.  The  people  were  right  to  spread  their 
garments  and  cast  their  branches  in  the  way  of  Jesus. 
Although  a  temporal  form,  it  symbolized  an  eternal  fact, 
that  he  was  the  king  of  the  truth ;  and  the  broad  church 
sanctions  it  to-day  and  in  all  time.  Come,  men  of  sci- 
ence, bring  your  implements  and  cast  them  at  his  feet, 
and  say.  Thou  art  the  centre  of  all  that  is  beautiful 

V     > 

and  glorious  in  nature,  and  in  the  spiritual  significance 
that  comes  from  the  Bible.  Come,  worker  in  the  field  of 
humanity,  and  confess  that  your  inspiration  is  in  the  truth 
of  Jesus.  Come,  strong,  thinking,  brave,  heroic  races  — 
come  glorious  hearts  of  all  ages  —  down  the  mountain  of 
time.  Scatter  the  branches ;  strew  the  garments  at  his 
feet.  But,  0,  yon  lowly  heart !  feeling  the  need  of  his 
truth,  —  feeling  the  penitence  which  his  utterance  against 
sin  awakens,  —  feeling  the  comfort  which  his  soothing 
words  bestow,  —  you  honor  him  better  than  all  when  you 
bring  your  heart  and  cast  it  at  his  feet. 


THE  creature  you  term  a  chattel,  and  affect  to  treat  as 
an  ape  or  a  monkey,  you  do  not  treat  as  an  ape  or  a 
monkey.  When  guilty  of  an  immoral  act  you  denounce 
him  as  guilty;  you  hold  him  morally  responsible;  and 
the  very  punishments  you  inflict  refute  your  mean  theo- 
ries of  his  being  nothing  more  than  a  brute. 


358  LIVING    WORDS. 

THE  foundation  of  the  kingdom  of  God  is  in  the  human 
soul ;  and  if  the  deep  instincts  of  our  nature  reluct  at  any 
plank  in  the  platform,  you  may  be  sure  that  that  plank 
does  not  belong  to  Christianity. 


WHEN  evil  comes  to  us,  sorrows  occur,  calamities 
break  in,  they  never  come,  or  occur,  or  break  in  as  the 
root  and  substance  of  things.  Evil  never  stands  before  us 
as  that  which  we  discovered  as  seeming  good ;  but  good 
often  comes  to  us  from  that  which  we  discovered  as  seem- 
ing evil.  What  seems  to  be  exceptional,  dark,  and  cruel, 
when  further  explained  and  placed  in  its  true  relations  is 
brought  into  harmony  with  the  great  whole,  and  is  trans- 
figured into  a  blessing.  The  dark  fact,  when  we  go 
deeper  sends  out  veins  of  light. 


I  SHOULD  not  like  to  preach  to  a  congregation  who  all 
believed  as  I  believe.  I  would  as  lief  preach  to  a  basket 
of  eggs,  in  their  smooth  compactness  and  oval  formality. 


WHEN  truth  comes  it  must  speak  by  its  own  authority. 
There  is  no  outside  evidence  greater  than  it.  There  is 
nothing  that  can  more  convince  of  its  truthfulness  than 
the  truth  itself. 


LIVING    WORDS.  359 

NATURE  satisfies  my  thirst;  it  feeds  my  hunger;  it 
finds  me  clothing ;  it  affords  me  shelter ;  it  wraps  me 
around  when  I  sleep  with  beneficent  and  watchful  care ; 
and  it  takes  me  at  last  to  its  great  bosom,  where  my  ashes 
mingle  with  their  kindred  dust.  These  are  not  all  of 
human  wants :  not  in  nightly  sleep,  in  daily  action,  in  the 
arms  of  death.  There  are  deeper  wants  than  these. 
There  are  capacities  for  endless  progress,  love  which 
nothing  can  quench,  a  desire  which 'mounts  beyond  the 
stars.  Now,  where  nature  fails  to  supply,  Christianity 
comes  in  and  takes  up  my  higher  wants  and  ministers  to 
them,  just  as  physical  nature  ministers  to  my  lower  order 
of  wants.  It  is  the  other  hemisphere  to  nature.  Does 
not  that  indicate  its  origin  that  both  are  from  one  source  ? 


THERE  is  nothing  more  disproportioned  in  humanity 
than  a  hard-hearted  and  ill-natured  young  man. 


NATURE  becomes  interpreted  when  you  set  the  cross  of 
Christ  in  the  centre  of  it.  That  divine,  self-sacrificing 
love  lights  it  all  up,  —  illuminates  it,  —  makes  it  some- 
thing new.  Every  star  that  shings  in  heaven  receives  a 
brighter  significance  in  that,  and  every  quivering  of  dim 
life  that  lies  under  the  lenses  of  the  microscope  illustrates 
the  great  law  of  love  and  self-sacrifice. 


360  LIVING    WORDS. 

GOD  never  alters  his  methods.  We  may  hurry  our- 
selves, but  we  cannot  hurry  him.  After  all,  the  grass 
takfes  just  as  long  to  grow,  and  the  oak-tree  to  develop, 
and  the  great  processes  of  nature  to  unfold  themselves. 
And  we  may  be  sure  that  just  so  much  effort  must  go  to 
just  so  much  result.  The  great  laws  of  God  must  be 
obeyed,  or  the  rewards  which  follow  the  obedience  of 
those  laws  will  not  come. 


"  IN  like  manner  will  he  come  again."  How  ?  Calmly, 
serenely,  gradually — as  he  rose  into  heaven — so,  calmly, 
serenely,  gradually  will  Christ  come  again;  come  in  the 
slow  progress  of  ages  in  the  world ;  come  in  the  triumph 
of  every  truth ;  come  in  the  victory  over  every  falsehood ; 
come  in  every  right  that  shall  lift  up  its  long-scarred  and 
abused  head ;  —  so  will  he  come  to  the  world.  And  to 
you  he  comes  in  every  influence  that  leads  you  to  him ; 
in  everything  that  makes  you  more  like  him ;  in  every- 
thing that  causes  you  to  exalt  his  law  in  your  heart,  and 
to  surrender  your  lives  to  his  will.  Serenely,  calmly, 
within,  Christ  comes  to  each  of  us,  and  gradually,  even 
as  he  went  up  into  heaven. 


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